


Lance's Secret

by NoUselessName



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Implied/referenced character relative suicide, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance hates his powers, Psychic Lance (Voltron), lance has powers, maybe ocs later on - Freeform, trouble with powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2020-01-24 15:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18574657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoUselessName/pseuds/NoUselessName
Summary: Lance has a secret ... or, a "curse" according to him. He thought that if he ignored it that it would go away. Unfortunately, all it did was get worse over time.Now it’s gotten so out of control that it’s interfering with being a Defender of the Universe. If he had it his way, his team would never find out about it. It figures that out in space, he never gets his way ... Should he have seen this coming?





	1. Secret’s Out

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, first time writing for this site/fandom. This is just something I came up with and it won't leave me alone, so I decided just to put it on paper. Also note: this doesn't really fit into any particular time; so don't go crazy trying to place it somewhere. Let's just have fun!
> 
> And yes, I took the bleeding thing from Stranger Things, but I wanted it to be tied directly to Lance’s brain. Think of it like any time he uses his powers, it squeezes his brain a little. But there’s a little twist (that probably isn’t clear now, but it will be later): Lance has more than just telekinesis 😘  
> Hopefully this is easy for y'all to read.

The castle rumbled as another Galra fighter jet attacked. Power had been cut off from the castle, stranding the paladins, the Alteans and Lotor in the bridge.

“Coran, activate the particle barrier now!” Allura yelled in a controlled-panic tone. She clung onto Lotor as the rumbling continued but began to slow down.

“I can’t, princess! Without power, we are completely defenseless!”

Keith brought his arm up to his face. “I’ll call Kolivon; maybe the Blades can help us out!” 

“They won’t get here in time!” Shiro responded.

“What are we gonna do?! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!?!?!” Hunk yelled in a panic. He grabbed ahold of Pidge in a strong grip. 

“Wait … why haven’t they hit us in a while?” Pidge asked.

A second of silence passed before Lotor gasped out loud. That was when all eyes turned to him. “I fear that they are preparing to use more aggressive force on us …”

“ … Like what?” Hunk asked, still clutching Pidge. Before the Prince could respond, a loud mechanical whining sound was heard. Allura looked to the Galra cruiser that was hovering right in front of them.

“They’re going to obliterate us with their Ion cannon!” Coran confirmed.

“If they hit us, we’re all DEAD!” Hunk yelled.

Allura ran to her platform and placed her hands on the pillars. They were unusually cold, what with the power being out. “Maybe I can give the castle just enough power to make one small wormhole jump!” She closed her eyes and concentrated, but quickly opened them upon hearing Lotor cry out,

“I’m afraid you have run out of time!”

Right in front of them, the Ion cannon fired its powerful shot, aiming directly at the Castle of Lions. As it made its way towards its target, the occupants all prepared themselves for impact and immediate death … but it never came. Everyone looked at each other confusingly.

“Uh … why are we not combusting into flames?” Pidge asked.

Allura looked around, silently asking the same question (more or less) to herself. Finally, she looked ahead and her eyes widened in shock and disbelief. “Look!” she yelled, pointing straight ahead.There, in front of them—at a safe enough distance to not be affected by the heat, but close enough to see it clearly—was the ion cannon blast. The bright pink bream of light hovered in mid-space right outside of the bridge’s window, casting a pink glow on the castle and everyone in it.

“What the quiznak?!” Keith cussed as he moved closer to get a better look.

“What’s going on …?” Allura asked. She meant to silently as herself, but accidently spoke the question aloud.

“I am unsure …” Lotor responded, neither he nor Allura looking away from the hovering blast.

Suddenly, a strained groaning sound was heard. Hunk was the first to finally look away at the impossibility that everyone was seeing. “What’s tha—OH, DUDE! WHAT’S GOING ON?!?!?! YOUR EYES ARE BLEEDING!!!!!!!” He yelled, turning to Lance. His yelling was loud enough to wake the others from their stupor and look in Lance’s direction.

Lance stood there with his arm stretched out with his palm forward. He squinted his eyes in a pained expression, they were also glowing a bluish-white light. And, just as Hunk had stated, two thin streams of blood trickled down his face from the inner corners of his eyes. He was groaning in pain.

“Why are his eyes glowing?!” Pidge yelled to no one in particular.

Lance did not answer. He grunted in pain and more blood ran down his face.

“Wait, Lance … are YOU doing this?!” Allura asked in shock. Everyone seemed to be stunned. They looked back at the Ion blast, which was glowing the same bluish-white hue as Lance’s eyes.

“No way!” Keith exclaimed.

“Lance, what’s going on?!” Shiro demanded, a small note of fear in his tone.

“Lance groaned again, loudly this time. “ … M-m-mo … more … time …” He strained.

“What?” Shiro replied.

By now, Lance was panting heavily. Sweat fell from his brow, mixing with the blood. The veins in his head were prominent, as was the red color that his face was turning. “ … I-I’m try-trying … to …” His panting increased. “I’m … trying to … g-give … A-A-All-Allura … ugh … mo-more … t-time … to … to … ugh … to wor-worm-h-hole …” His speech was so strained that it took a lot of energy just to form that sentence. He raised his other hand, glowing the same hue as his other hand. “A-A-Allur-ra!” He yelled in both frustration and pain.

The stressful sound of her name brought Allura back to the matter at hand. “Oh, right!” She ran to her position and focused her energy into the Castle. The power flickered back on (for the moment). While Lance and Allura were busy, the others alternated their attention between Allura, the Ion blast and Lance.” Suddenly, the Ion blast began to twitch.

Trails of blood continued to run down Lance’s face. “All-Allu-ra … hur-ry …”

“I’m trying!”

The Ion blast’s twitching was becoming more frequent with each passing tick. The others did not know what to do. Only Allura and Lance could help them now.  
Finally, a wormhole appeared. Allura used her energy to move the Castle through it. Before they had made it all the way through the portal, the Ion blast shot into the spot where the Castle had previously been.

\---

The Castle reappeared in orbit next to the Balmera. Allura’s feet gave out from under her. Lotor caught her as she fell. The castle had no power once again.  


“Hey, the Balmera!” Hunk happily exclaimed. However, his peace was short lived. Lance collapsed at that moment, hitting his head pretty hard on the floor. “Lance!” The paladins and Coran ran over to their Cuban friend. Lance was still heavily panting; in fact, he was trembling when Hunk propped him up in his arms. Blood practically covered his face and dripped off his chin. His cheeks were red his eyes had heavy bags under them. Lance looked up at Hunk and gave an exhausted smile.

“Did we … g-get … away?” His voice was wheezy.

Hunk smiled back at him. “Yeah, Buddy; thanks to you …” He said, as Allura and Lotor came to stand next to the rest of the team.

Lance shakily held up a thumbs-up. “C-cool … beans.” Everyone softly laughed, enjoying the peace for a few seconds. It was Shiro that changed the atmosphere back to serious.

“Lance …” He spoke the boy’s name cautiously, not wanted to add to the stress, “I think you have a lot to tell us …”  


Lance nodded. “Y-yeah … I-I guess I do … ” He took a few more deep, heavy breaths as he wiped the blood from his chin, “c-can I take a … a nap first? I’ve go-got a KILLER headache …” The team softly laughed again.

“Sure.” Shiro replied with a relieved smile. Lance gave him a thankful smile and promptly passed out in Hunks arms.


	2. Questions Answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, most of this chapter is dialogue, but it's needed in order to move the story along.

During the hours that Lance slept, Hunk, Allura and Coran made a trip down to the Balmera to retrieve a new crystal. Of course, everyone knew that Hunk went along just to visit Shay. Keith made a call to Kolivan, saying that something had come up and that he would be a little bit longer. The boy wanted to know what was going on. Pidge busied herself at her station, thinking up new defense projects for the castle, so that something like this never happened again. Shiro and Lotor stood in the bridge, pretty much ignoring each other’s presence … until Lotor decided to speak up.

“That … display … that the Red Paladin put on,” he finally turned toward Shiro, who was typing something at his station, “is that common among your species?”

Shiro sighed. “That’s … an open-ended question …” The Black Paladin stood up and saw Lotor looking at him with a confused expression. “Mostly … no. However, there are some people that claim to have psychic powers, but most of them turn out to be frauds. I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Shiro sounded as if he was still attempting to wrap his mind around the whole situation. “So, to answer your question, no; it’s not common.”

Keith scoffed from his spot in the corner. Shiro tilted his head back a little bit and rolled his eyes. “Something to say, Keith?” The older man asked with a tone of annoyance in his voice. 

Keith shook his head. “I don’t buy it.” He stated. Shiro brought his hand to his face and rubbed his brow in irritation. “Lance just suddenly out-of-the-blue has these, so called, “psychic powers?” he used his fingers as air-quotes to emphasize the words. “Why have we not known about it until now? And if he’s telling the truth, has he been looking in our heads?!” He started to become animated, waving his arms dramatically. “And if so, what does he know about us?!”

“Keith …”

“This is so like Lance: trying to get attention at the worst possible times!” He began to pace around the bridge. Pidge tried to intervene as she and Lotor watched from their spots.

“I don’t think he’d want this kind of atten—”

“I refuse to believe that there’s anything special about him!”

“Keith.”

“—And another thing—”

“KEITH!”

“WHAT?!”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “We’ll find out what’s going on with Lance when he wakes up, okay?”

Keith’s right eye twitched. “Don’t tell me you actually believe this!”

Shiro sighed, taking his hand off of Keith’s shoulder since it did not seem to calm him down. “I don’t know what to believe. But it is hard to explain how we’re still standing here when there was a powerful weapon about to kill us … and how it just … hovered in mid-space like it did.”

Keith folded his arms. “Coincidence.” He simply stated. Shiro was about to reprimand him Allura, Coran and Hunk came into the room, Hunk and Coran carrying the new Balmara Crystal.

“We’re back.” Allura announced.

“How was the Balmera?” Shiro asked.

Hunk let out a happy sound and smiled a dreamy smile. “ _As beautiful as ever …_ ”

“I meant the planet.” Shiro clarified with a smirk in his lips.

Hunk shook his head, immediately waking with a blush on his cheeks. “Oh … um … It’s good. Healthy. Yeah, no more Galra attacks.” He said before beginning to help Coran install the crystal.

Shiro nodded. “Glad to hear it.”

Allura smiled. “Speaking of the Galra, it might be best if we stay here, where it’s safe,” the smile fell from her face, “until we can get this … situation with Lance figured out.”

On the subject of Lance, everyone fell silent.

“… Sooooo … how long ‘til he wakes up, ya think?” Hunk asked, just wanting the silence to end.

Pidge shrugged. “Who knows. After using so much power, it has to have put some sort of strain on his brain. Plus, did you see those bags under his eyes? It looked like the life was being sucked out of him!”

“Oh, don’t tell me you believe this bull-crap too! I expected more from you, Pidge.” Keith spat.

“Keith!”

“No!” Keith pulled away and stood in front of everyone. “It’s just too weird! This can’t be real!”

Shiro stood with his arms folded. “Why are you having such a hard time with this?” He asked, having almost reached the height of his patience with the boy.

“ _Because it’s Lance!_ ” You know, lazy, flirty, easily-distracted, sarcastic, can’t-give-a-damn **_LANCE!_** Plus, it’s impossible!” There was silence for a second before Pidge spoke up.

“Believe me, Keith, I’d love to agree. I want a logical explanation just as much as you do. But how else do you explain that Ion blast stopping just short of hitting us?”

Keith scoffed. “Easy. Um …” He trailed off. His eyes moved from side to side, looking for some answer that he did not have. “I … um …” Everyone looked at him, waiting for the former Red Paladin to explain the unexplained. He looked at each one of them, hoping that someone would give aide him with their eyes. But upon reaching none, he let out a deep exhale. “Okay, fine! I can’t explain it. But I’m not going to believe that Lance suddenly has psychic powers, either.” Keith was panting by the time he had finished talking.

“Look, let’s just wait for Lance to wake up.” Shiro said,

“For what?”

Everyone turned to the new voice that came from the door. There Lance stood in his civilian clothes like everyone else (except Keith). His face was clear of the blood, but he still looked pale and there were still dark bags under his eyes.

“LANCE!” Hunk ran up to Lance and enveloped him in a large, tight hug. “Are you hungry? You must be hungry! C’mon, I’ll make ya something special to eat!” Hunk escorted Lance out of the bridge. The rest of them watched as they left.

Keith looked at Shiro like he expected the Voltron leader to do something. 

“Well, a few more minutes won’t hurt.” Shiro offered to the group. He then turned to Keith. “And it would give you time to calm down.” He made his way out of the bridge as Keith rolled his eyes.

\-----

Lance ate his food while the others all filed into the room. “Hey, guys.” He said around a mouthful of goo. Hunk was already sitting beside Lance. Shiro, Pidge, Allura and Coran all sat down in the chairs around the table. Lotor and Keith remained standing. The silence continued. Lance was about to take another bite before he realized that everyone was looking directly at him. “Uh … what’s wrong?” He asked, then took another bite

Hunk shrugged his shoulders. “We’re just waiting for you to explain what happened earlier, Buddy.” He said in a very careful tone, almost as if he were afraid of Lance making any sudden movements.

Lance blinked innocently twice. “What?”

“You know,” Lance turned to Pidge as she stared at him from over the rim of her glasses, “how you stopped an Ion cannon with your mind?” She demonstrated by pressing both of her index fingers on her temples.

Lance’s face fell and he sat back in his chair. He stared down at his half-eaten bowl of goo for a few ticks before finally whispering, “I was hoping that was just a dream …” He seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone else. The others just watched as he sighed and slowly stood up. “Okay … uh …”

The bowl that held Lance’s food-goo began to wobble on its own. The wobbling began to increase. Shiro noticed it first, while watching Lance become increasingly nervous.

“Lance …” He calmly said.

“What!” Lance yelled, as if being snapped out of a trance. There were a few bloody tears falling from his eyes.

The bowl tipped over at his yell. Lance jumped. He looked at the others with their confused and fearful looks. “Okay, look … we need to talk, I know that … but, j-just give me a few minutes …”

Allura started to move towards him, hoping that her presence would soothe him a bit. “Lance …”

The Red Paladin instantly stepped away from her like her touch would burn him. “No, we’ll talk I-I promise!” Lace was starting to sweat again. “I-I’ll meet you guys in the lounge. I j-jus-just need five minutes to … to wrap my head around the fact that-that you guys-that you, _you know_ , you know?” He then made his exit out of the dining room, leaving behind a feeling of awkwardness that was so heavy that one did not need psychic powers to feel it.

\-----

Everyone reconvened in the lounge. Five minutes became ten; then fifteen. Pidge brought her laptop to give her something to do. Hunk alternated between looking over her shoulder to help, and watching the door for Lance. Allura sat down on the opposite side of the room from them while Lotor stood behind her and the two of them would chat in hushed tones. Keith sat on the same couch as Hunk and Pidge, but with a good amount of space between them. He took it upon himself to polish his Marmora blade while they waited, while Shiro paced in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, the doors opened with Lance being led by the arm from Coran. “Easy, now; ‘atta boy. There we are.” He looked up to address the room. “Look who decided to join us!” The mustached man announced jubilantly. Lance stood there with a look that was a cross between shame and fear.

Hunk stood up while Pidge put her laptop away. “Hey … Buddy—”

Lance visibly winced. “Hunk, don’t be scared of me … please …”

Hunk let out a nervous laugh. “Whaa-aat? I’m not scared …”

“Yes, you are! I can feel it, literally feel it!” There were gasps around the room. Hunk slumped a little. Lance clenched his fists to his head. “Now you feel guilty! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Lance sounded like he was about to break down again. His knees were trembling as if he would fall. 

Shiro stepped in and guided Lance to the sofa. “Okay, Lance; take it easy …” Lance took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, but he still looked quite uneasy.

“So … how would we go about doing this?” Hunk asked, sitting down next to Lance and put an arm around him, who leaned into the bigger boy for comfort. He seemed to still be exhausted.

“I’ll answer any questions you guys have …” Lance said. His voice was weak and tired, but he pushed through.

There was an awkward silence for a few ticks, with everyone looking at one another.

“Okay, I’ll start.” Shiro stated, wanting to get the ball rolling. “So … h-how … um … how long have … have you—”

“—Been cursed?” Lance finished for him, looking up with exhausted eyes. Shiro practically flinched as the room went silent, no one knowing how to respond to something like that. Lance looked down at his lap before finally answering. “Well … I guess I was born with it … But it didn’t really become a problem until I was about ten.”

“What do you mean by ‘curse,’ Lance?” Allura calmly asked.

“ That’s what it’s always been. It’s terrible!” Lance yelled in response. He stood up and walked to the middle of the room. “I hear peoples’ inner voices and thoughts all the time!”

“So, you’ve been going into our heads and reading our minds?” Keith asked aggressively.

“What? No, I—”

“Who gave you permission to go into our heads?!” Keith raised his voice, stepping close to Lance.

“Keith!” Shiro tried to stop the inevitable fight, but was too late.

“ _I can’t help it!_ ” Lance yelled in a desperate tone. He was panting as he and Keith stood nose-to-nose with each other.

Keith scoffed for the third time. “I still don’t believe this!” He turned to walk a few steps away from Lance before swiftly turning back around. “Okay, “ _psychic_ ,” he leaned in, pointing to himself, “what am I thinking right now?” He asked with a smug look on his face.

Lance was silent for a second before he loudly gasped and pointed at his so called, rival. “ _You watch your language!_ ” He ran over to Pidge and put his hands over her ears. The small girl let out a small squeak as Lance held onto her head. “There are young ears here!”

Keith stared at Lance with wide eyes for a few seconds before returning to his usual scowl. “Lucky guess …” he said with a bit of an edge to his voice.

Lance dramatically slapped his hands to his face and slid them down. “It wasn’t a guess! You want me to prove it? Fine, I’ll prove it!” He turned around and pointed at Allura. “Allura once broke a priceless vase while dancing in the castle, then tried to cover it up by gluing it back together!” 

Everyone pretty much turned to Allura at that point, who had a horrified look on her face. 

Coran, who had been standing next to her, gasped out loud. “Allura! You did that?!” He looked at her like a teacher scolding a disruptive child with a disappointed look.

Allura’s figure slumped a bit. “Heh … maybe …” 

Coran shook his head and let out a loud exhale. “I can’t believe this! Your father blamed me for that! He put me on leave for four movements!” Coran held up four fingers to Allura, who flinched slightly.

“And what are you yelling at her for, Coran?” Lance continued, standing with his hands on his hips. “You’re the reason that Alfor found out Allura was keeping a baby Yelmor as a pet!”

Allura’s guilty gaze turned to shock. Her jaw dropped and her angry gaze and slowly move to Coran in an accusing manner. She stood looking at him with her arms folded and eyes narrowed. 

Coran smiled at her nervously. “Heh, heh … call it even …?”

Lance swung around and pointed at his next victim. “Hunk used to take ballet!”

Hunk just hung his head a bit and pressed his index fingers together. “Uh, to be clear, that was Mom’s idea; not mine.”

Lance continued by pointing at Shiro. “Shiro pulled a prank his first year at the Garrison!”

Hunk laughed, facing the Black Paladin. “Heh, no way!”

Lance nodded. “Yup. He was dared to steal Iverson’s toupee and then strung it up the flagpole. That’s why the old man doesn’t wear one anymore.”

Shiro did not flinch, nor did he wince. He just folded his arms and moved his gaze away. “They never proved that was me.”

Lance continued by pointing at Pidge. “And Pidge, the little rebel that she is, started a black market of candy after her elementary school banned sugar!”

Pidge proudly grinned and adjusted her glasses. “Ah, the good ol’ days ...”

Lance then turned back to Keith, folding his arms. “And I don’t think you want me to get into how you _really_ feel about your Galra side ...” he raised a brow, “you know, how you’re afraid of it ...?”

Keith’s eyes widened in horror, not noticing everyone looking at him, pretty much expecting one of them to provide an explanation; but neither he, nor Lance, provided one. Both boys stared each other down until Shiro stepped between them and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

“Okay, okay; I think Lance has proven that he’s the real deal.” He said, looking back and forth between them.

Pidge grinned. “Is that you admitting guilt, Shiro?”

The Black Paladin gave her a small, knowing smile. “I’m not admitting to anything.” His face then turned serious. “What I am saying, is that Lance couldn’t have known any of this unless he had some sort of special gifts.”

Lance turned away from his leader and scoffed. “You mean curse.”

“Why do you keep saying that, Lance?” Allura asked.

Lance threw his arms in the air. “ _because it is!_ ” Everyone flinched, not expecting Lance to raise his voice. He lowered his arms, along with his gaze. “You guys don’t get it,” he began to pace, seemingly unconsciously, “I hear thoughts that aren’t mine. I feel feelings that aren’t mine either. I can’t get a restful sleep because I see future and past events in my dreams!” The Cuban boy cradled his head in his hands. “Sometimes it gets so loud in my head, that I can’t tell which thoughts are my own.”

The round couches began trembling. Lance sat down to calm himself. He exhaled, and the furniture stopped shaking, but a small, bloody tear fell from his eye. He looked up at the rest of the team with tired eyes. “Look, I don’t want to know things about you guys, but I do! I don’t go looking through your heads whenever I want; you guys project your thoughts and emotions to me!”

Shiro sat down next to Lance, trying to be as calm as possible. “How are we doing that, Lance?”

“Yeah, and how do we stop?” Keith added from his spot in the corner, far away from Lance.

Shiro opened his mouth to reprimand him when Lance spoke first. “You don’t ...” The boy replied in a defeated voice, “it’s just something people do ...”

Almost as if he could feel Lance’s emotion himself, Hunk sat beside his best friend, putting a comforting arm around him. “What do you mean, Buddy?”

Lance looked up at him with teary eyes and leaned into Hunk’s side, needing the comfort. “It’s the aura.”

“The what?” Shiro asked.

“Peoples’ auras. It shows me images and memories of a person’s life.”

Allura stepped closer to Lance with caution. “Lance ... what is an “aura?” I’m afraid we,” she gestured to Coran, Lotor and herself,” have never heard of this concept before.”

Lance sat up. “Oh, yeah ... I guess you wouldn’t. You have a different word for it: quintessence.” Allura and Coran both gasped out loud.

“Are you saying that you can actually see an individual’s quintessence while it is inside them?” Lotor asked with a little too much interest in his voice.

Lance glared at him. “Yeah, kinda.” He sat up a little straighter and hardened his glare. “And you’re not gonna use my curse to further your agenda!”

At the harsh tone, Lotor backed up with his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “I never said—"

“—You were thinking it!” Lance snapped.

Lotor glared back, about to retort, “Look you little—" when Allura put her hand on his arm.

“Lotor, why don’t you go stand over by Keith.” Lotor looked like he was about to argue, but he remembered what this particular paladin was capable of, so he begrudgingly took her advice. There was quiet as he made his way over to Keith’s corner in annoyance.

“And stop cussing at me!” Lance commented. Lotor spun around, looking at Lance in both surprise and annoyance when he made it to his spot. Hunk and Pidge both tried to fight back their laughter, but a small squeak escaped from Hunk.

“Lance,” Shiro stared, bringing Lance’s attention back to him, “tell us more about seeing auras.”

Lance took a breath. “Well, they’re all different colors and very bright. I see certain memories in them. Kinda like movies only I can see.” Tears began to fill his eyes. “I-I try not to look, but I can’t help it.”

“How can you not help it?!” Keith exclaimed, startling Lotor next to him.

“I know how invasive it is; so, I try not to look. B-but if I don’t, then the auras just keep getting brighter and brighter until I finally give in and look ...” Lance curled in on himself again. “I’m sorry ...”

“That’s why you get so distracted,” Coran said, twirling his mustache in thought, “you’re looking at those images ...”

Pidge shrugged. “That explains a lot, actually.” She moved closer to Lance. “What I wanna know is,” she then pushed her glasses up, “how have you been keeping it from us?”

Lance visibly raised a brow in confusion and Pidge decided to clarify herself. “I mean, you were the only one that didn’t know I was a girl when we first got out to space; that’s something a psychic would know. Also, you hid it from us when we were doing those mental bonding exercises. How did you do that?”

Instead of answering, Lance dug around in the pocket of his jacket until he found what he was looking for. He threw something small at the girl in front of him, who caught it with surprise. “What is this?” She asked.

“It’s medicine; more specifically an antidepressant.”

Everyone simultaneously looked at Lance like he had just grown another head. “ ** _YOU?!_** ” They all asked in unison.

Lance dramatically rolled his eyes. “ _Yes, me!_ ” He responded with a little bit of an attitude.

Shiro took the small pill bottle from Pidge’s hands and examined it. “I don’t understand. What does an antidepressant have to do with your abilities?”

Lance took back the bottle and put it back in his pocket. “It has some kind of ingredient in it that suppresses the curse. It quiets the voices, makes the feelings go away ... and got rid of the headaches ...” He closed his eyes and smiled happily. “It was bliss.”

“Was?” Hunk pressed on.

Lance’s happy smile dropped. “A few movements ago ... I ran out.”

“You ran out a prescribed drug _and you didn’t say anything?_ ” Shiro asked with growing alarm in his voice.

“What was I supposed to do? Say “ _hey guys, I need to go back to Earth to refill on drugs that you didn’t know I’m on!_ ” We were kinda busy with a war at the time, Shiro!” Normally, Shiro would have warned Lance about using that tone with him, but he decided to forego it this one time.

“It wasn’t a big deal at first.” Lance continued. “I’d been on it for so long that I had hoped that it had ... “cured” me.” The Once-Blue-Now-Red Paladin didn’t not really want to use the word cured, but it was the only one he could come up with. “Nothing happened the first few quintents, so I didn’t think about it.” Lance slowly shook his head. “I should have known better when the effects started up again ...” He spoke in a lower volume, not meaning for anyone but himself to hear.

“Effects?” So, you knew that your powers would come back?” Keith asked aggressively.

Lance shrugged.

“Lance, I think you need to tell us your whole story.” Allura piped in.

Shiro nodded with his arms folded. “I agree. The only way we’re going to really be able to understand is if you tell us how it all began.” He made himself comfortable on the couch again. “Now, you said that your abilities didn’t become a thing until you were ten. Why is that?”

Lance’s gaze fell to his lap in a sad expression. “Because that’s when something bad happened ...”

“... Like ...?” Pidge urged while rolling her hand in a go on gesture.

Lance was beginning to hyperventilate. “Please don’t make me go there ...” He visibly shook.

Hunk tightened his hold on Lance. The two best friends looked at each other, one hesitant and the other encouraging. “You need to get it off your chest, Buddy.”

Pidge’s spine straightened with and a curious look appeared on her face. “Wait, did you know about this?”

Hunk held up his arm that wasn’t wrapped around Lance’s shoulders in self-defense. “Well, I didn’t know Lance was psychic, but I know about what happened.”

Lance exhaled forcibly. “Fine, but it’s long and not a very good story ...”

Those that were standing made themselves comfortable by sitting down, preparing to listen to Lance’s story.

He sighed. “It was a few days after my tenth birthday ...”


	3. Lance's Story Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **TRIGGER WARNING** with this one. If you are sensitive to the subject of suicide, I sympathize, and feel free to skip the Italicized parts. I'm sorry about that, but it's important for Lance's backstory. 
> 
> This one took me a bit longer because I had to completely rewrite it. At first I was just going to have Lance tell the information to them. But then I thought that would be boring, so I rewrote it into flashback form. 
> 
> The part that is both bolded and Italicized is, of course, Lance's dream. But the Italicized part is Lance's flashback.
> 
> ** God help me ...

_It had been a few days since Lance had turned ten years old. To him, a whole new world had just opened up to him. He had a later bed time (albeit only by half an hour), his siblings deemed him old enough to go with them on their after-school trips to the beach without their parents, and he and his sister were supposed to get separate bedrooms. Mama promised._

_Lance and his family were having breakfast at the kitchen table. Lance and Rachel were arguing over who was going to have the last waffle._

_“I should get it because I’m older!” Rachel said with a smile._

_“By three minutes!” Lance argued. He hated it when Rachel used that against him, and he—_

\--- ---

“—Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Lance’s story was abruptly interrupted by Hunk, much to the irritation of everyone else. “You and Rachel are twins?!?!”

Lance shrugged, still a little ticked from being interrupted. “Yeah, so ...?”

“Dude! I’m your best friend! How come you didn’t tell me you were a twin?!” Hunk exclaimed, grabbing Lance by the collar of his baseball tee.

“It’s not that important; plus, you never asked.”

Hunk shook his head in disbelief. “What are you talking about?! I asked you about your family when we first met! You said you were the youngest!”

“Which is true. Rachel _IS_ older than me ... just by three minutes.”

“As fascinating as finding out Lance is a twin is, can we get back to the topic, please?” Shiro asked in an exasperated way.

“Sorry ...” Hunk and Lance said in union.

\--- ---

_Anyway, the Great Waffle Debate was over when Mamá cut the prize in half, giving each twin a piece._

_Then all five siblings walked to school together. On a small island like Cuba, the schools were not far from each other. So, the older three, Luis, Veronica and Marco, made sure the twins made it to the elementary school before continuing on to Marco’s middle school and then the high school. Safety in numbers, after all._

_Suddenly, Lance stopped in mid-step, causing Rachel to bump into him with an “oomf!” She glared at him while straightening out her skirt. “What’s wrong with you, Dork?”_

_Lance looked around before looking back at his sister. “I have a bad feeling ...”_

_Rachel raised an eyebrow. “About what? That math test last week? Mamá already yelled at you about that.”_

_“No! I’m serious!”_

_The female twin looked at her brother with worry. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Hey, whatever it is, it’ll be okay ...”_

_Lance looked at his sister with a look he used to give her when they were younger. The look would silently ask her to protect him, and she always did. Just like the good big sister that she is. Rachel gave him a reassuring smile before taking Lance’s hand and both of them continued the rest of the walk to school._

\--- ---

_That night, Rachel slept peacefully in her bed, while Lance was restless just a few feet away. He tossed and turned with clenched eyes. He was having a nightmare. Lance usually never had nightmares ..._

\--- ---

**_In his nightmare, Lance was running through a violent storm. Even though there was endless blackness with no clouds to see, thunder boomed and lightning flashed. He did not know why he was running, just that he was very scared and wanted his family._ **

**_Suddenly he ran into something. He looked up to see that it was his father. “Papí...”_ **

**_“Lance … mijó … you need to turn around and don’t look back.” His father said without turning around to look at him._ **

**_“Why?”_ **

**_“Don’t question me! Just do as I say and don’t look back!”_ **

**_Lance did not want to go back. He ran from something, and he knew that something was scary. He maneuvered around his father when a hand on his shoulder stopped him._ **

**_“Mijó, no! You mustn’t go any further! If you do you will open up something that you won’t be able to understand!”_ **

**_“What are you keeping from me?!” Lance wrenched himself away from his father’s grasp. He turned around to move ahead when he stopped and gasped._ **

**_Before him lay a pile of bodies. There were glowing mists rising out of them. The mists sounded like they were all talking at once, talking over each other. All the talking was so loud. There were so many voices and so many feelings that went with those voices. Lance covered his ears, trying to block out all the noise and feelings._ **

**_“Why didn’t you just listen to me?” Lance turned towards his father, who had a crazed look in his eyes—which were bleeding, like he was crying blood instead of tears. He forcibly grabbed Lance by his shoulders and shook him. “WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST LISTEN?!?! I tried to protect you, but now there’s nothing I can do!” Papí yelled. Lance began to cry, especially when his father’s fingers began to dig into his shoulders. “Look at what you’ve done!” Lance’s father turned him around. The little boy saw the bodies of his brothers, his sisters and his mother. Around each of their necks was a rope, tied extremely tightly. “You’ve torn our family apart!”_ **

**_“No!” Lance yelled. He tried to break out of his father’s grasp, but he just did not have the strength._ **

**_“Lance!” Papí yelled._ **

**_Lance shook his head. “No, no!”_ **

**_“Lance, wake up!”_ **

\--- ---

_“Lance, wake up!”_

_Lance bolted upright with a loud scream. He looked around frantically before realizing that what he saw was just a dream. He let out a whimpering breath as he saw his father and Rachel looking at him with worried looks._

__

_“It’s okay, Mijó … it was just a nightmare.” The ten-year-old boy continued to breathe heavily. He could still hear the distant voices of those bodies in the back of his mind.  
_

_“It was horrible …”  
_

_Papí sighed and told Rachel to go back to bed while he took Lance’s hand and both of them went down to the kitchen._

____

____

__

__

\--- ---

_After a cup of milk, Lance had calmed down. “That was a really scary dream … “ He said, hands clenched around his cup. He had not been able to shake that bad feeling all day. “Papí … I’ve been having a bad feeling all day, and I don’t know what to do …”_

_“Ignore it.”_

_“Huh?” Lance looked at his father, who stared into his own cup of milk._

_“Ignore all of it. As long as you can.”_

_Lance blinked._

_“Why?”_

_“Just do as I say!” His father yelled. Lance flinched. Papí sighed. “Dios ayúdame** ... Listen to me, Mijó …” He grabbed Lance by the shoulders, just as he did in the nightmare. Lance shivered at that, suddenly flashing back to his nightmare, where his father’s eyes were crying bloody trails down his face, then quickly flashed back to the present. Papí looked him straight in the eye and said, “no matter what … you must never give into it!”_

_Lance was scared. He did not know what Papí was talking about. “Into what?”_

_“Just promise me, no matter what you hear and no matter what you feel … you have to ignore it._

_“Papí … you’re scaring me …” That crazed look from the nightmare was in Papí’s eyes again._

_The man stood up and towered over his son. “Just promise me!”_

_“Okay! Okay, I promise!” Lance had tears in his eyes. The crazed spark in his father’s eyes had disappeared at the promise. The man let go of his son’s shoulders and took a sip from his cup._

_Lance looked at his father in confusion and fear, but the two did not speak again that night._

\--- ---

The Red Paladin had tears (normal tears) trailing down his face. He quickly wiped them away with his sleeve.

“So ... he didn’t tell you what it was he wanted you to ignore?” Hunk asked from his spot right next to Lance, who shook his head.

Pidge hummed. “Well, that’s cryptic! How would you know what to look out for if he didn’t tell you?” She seemed to be pondering her own thoughts out loud.

A bittersweet grin plastered itself on Lance’s face. “Well … it didn’t take me long to figure it out …” 

\--- ---

_The days following Lance’s talk with Papí were rough. The dreadful feeling would not go away. In fact, it had gotten worse. He was constantly anxious with anticipation that something bad would happen at any time. He tried to talk to his mother about it, but she just waved him off, telling him that there was nothing to worry about. He could not even talk to Rachel because she did not understand why he could not let the dreadful feeling go. Truthfully, he could not understand why, either._

_Finally, after three days, Lance had become so fed up with everything that he decided to sneak out of school during lunch and go home. He was especially anxious on this day, because he had had another nightmare. This time, it was Papí that died. Lance could clearly recall walking into a room and finding his father’s dead body swinging from a rope. The most eerie part was the blood that covered his father’s face, leaking from his eyes, just like in the previous nightmare. He could not remember where the dream took place, but he knew this nightmare was a result of his recent anxiousness._

_So, Lance walked down the street on his own. He was not concerned about his siblings when he did not show up for the walk home; they would just leave without him (they had done it before). Maybe he would go to the beach afterwards; the sound of the crashing waves always helped him clear his head. It was a bright, sunny day, so it would be a perfect day to go to the beach._

_Lance reached his house and suddenly the dreadful feeling peaked. It almost made him cry. Coming home to an empty house was so ominous. With so many people, there was usually always someone home. But, at that very moment, his siblings were at school and his mother must have been at the market. His father should have been at work at that time._

_Shakily, Lance’s tiny hand took the doorknob and opened the door. “I’m home!” He called, even though he figured no one was going to answer. “Hello?” At first, Lance was relieved when he did not get an answer. But the further he walked into the house, the heavier the dreadful feeling became. “Mama?” Suddenly, he felt a sense of de ja vu. He felt as if he was reliving (almost literally) his nightmare. At that realization, Lance gasped._

_Quickly, Lance ran to his parents’ bedroom only to find the door locked. Oh no! The boy banged on the door. “Papí!” Bang, bang, “Por favor, **LET ME IN!** ” Lance shoved his shoulder into the wooden barrier. His tiny, thin, less-than-ninety-pound frame did not have the strength to open the door. He then ran into Veronica’s room for a bobby pin, then used said pin to pick the lock. Marco had taught the twins how to pick locks in case they ever got locked out of the house. Once the door was unlocked, Lance forced his way in. He stared ahead in terror at what he saw._


	4. Lance's Story Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finishes telling his story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted to get this up as soon as possible and I was able to! Problem now, is, that I've reached the end of what was pre-written in my notebook. I physically write the story down first, then I type it up (making little changes here and there). As a matter of fact, I had to come up with the ending on the spot ... which I'm not very good at doing (you'll probably be able to tell when you read). Any-hoozy-wats-its, It's probably going to be a while before I update again. 
> 
> Oh, and trigger warning for this chapter: if you're sensitive to suicide, this chapter HEAVILY suggests it. I'm sorry for bringing it up, but it's important to Lance's backstory. It's the trauma that triggered his powers.
> 
> Also, in here, yes, Lance is psychic, but he is not a medium ... That's important too
> 
> With that, enjoy!
> 
> -
> 
> ** "Why does it have to be him?"

Lance leaned forward and buried his head between his legs, hands clenching it. The team was in anticipation of Lance’s story. Hunk rubbed his hand on his best friend’s back. He had started tearing up a while ago.

“Buddy … you didn’t tell me that you were the one that found him …” Hunk’s voice wavered. 

“You actually found your dad’s body?” Pidge asked with shock in her voice, and on her face. Internally, she saw Lance in a new light. Her brother and father going missing had nothing on actually seeing a dead body. She gained a new respect for Lance, a respect for living all these years after seeing such a traumatic scene. She was unsure if she would have been able to carry on, if she were in Lance’s shoes.

Lance nodded, tears running down his face from his red, puffy eyes. They came so rapidly that he could not stop them with his sleeve this time around. “H-he had t-ta-taken one of his t-ties and …” He made a hanging gesture before burying his face in his hands again.

“I am so sorry for your loss, Lance … I can’t imagine the kind of trauma that would inflict …” Allura said, brought to tears. 

Keith looked away, feeling a tiny bit guilty and sorry. He always assumed that Lance, with his loud, obnoxiously cheerful persona, did not know the pain of losing someone. Boy, was he ever wrong. The former Red Paladin let out a small exhale, silently feeling for Lance’s pain; but otherwise remained silent. At least Keith had been spared from seeing his own father’s dead body.

Shiro patted Lance on the shoulder. “I know this is difficult, Lance … But you need to tell us what happened next …”

“Yeah,” Pidge piped up, rubbing her eyes, “what did you do after you found him?”

Lance rolled his puffy eyes. _“I screamed!”_ He said, like it was the most obvious answer. “I screamed until my mom came home. I don’t really remember too much after that. I vaguely remember my mom screaming … and a lot of commotion for the rest of the day. But other than that, everything just passed by in slow motion, you know.” There was silence for a few minutes to let everything sink in. “But it wasn’t too long after that, that the weird things began to happen.”

“Weird like how?” Pidge asked.

Lance bit his lip, eyes looking far off, trying to recall his memories. “Like, pictures would fall off the wall whenever I walked by, or I finish people’s sentences for them, and little house-hold objects—like car keys or my sister’s favorite lip gloss—would just disappear for days and then randomly reappear under my bed.” Lance gave a small, humorless chuckle. “I thought I was being pranked by a ghost or somethi—”

**“GHOST?!** Wait, you can see ghosts too?!” Hunk yelled in anxiety. 

The onslaught of anxious emotions came on so suddenly that Lance quickly pulled away from Hunk, when the Yellow Paladin looked over each of his shoulders for ghosts. The Red Paladin could feel his heart rate increase. He gripped his chest in pain.

“Relax, Hunk … please …” He rubbed his temples and clenched his eyes. Everything was getting out of control. Lance went to stand on the side of the room where there were fewer people.

“Are you alright, m’boy?” Coran asked. He went to place his hand on Lance’s shoulder, but felt some sort of invisible force prevent him from doing so.

“I’m fine!” But he was not fine. The streams of blood running down his face proved it. “I just need to …” 

Hunk snapped out of his fear and looked back at Lance, immediately realizing that the other Paladin was feeling his fear; so, he forced himself to calm down. He stood next to Lance and put his hands on his shoulders, after pushing through the invisible force that prevented Coran just moments ago. “I’m sorry, Lance.” Lance kept cringing, as if he did not hear Hunk. 

The Yellow Paladin had to think fast. He needed to calm Lance down somehow, make him think of something else. An idea came to his mind. “Lance, remember that time we snuck out of the Garrison and went to that sketchy bar and grill in the city? 

“You did what?” Shiro asked with a calm, yet shocked tone. 

Hunk ignored him. “You know, that one where you got wasted and ended up puking all over that girl’s dress, while I went to the kitchen and taught the cook how to properly fry onion rings?”

Lance snickered in a painful manner. “Yeah, I remember that. We got lost in the desert that night and didn’t get back ‘til lights-out the next night.” He and Hunk both laughed.

“Wait, is that why you were gone for two days? I don’t believe you guys!” Pidge said with her hands on her hips. 

“Yeah, we sure got into some of the deepest trouble we’ve ever been in that time.” Hunk said, ignoring Pidge.

Lance nodded and lifted his head, smiling at his best friend. His eyes were still tired, but were back to the carefree look that Lance was famous for, again. “Thanks, Hunk. I needed that.” He wiped the blood off of his face and sat down with Hunk, his “partner in crime. 

“Sorry about that.” Hunk said with clear guilt.

Lance took in a deep breath. “It’s okay. There was a lot going on in my head.” Lance finally regained his composure. “But no, Hunk, I can’t see ghosts. I’m not a medium; just psychic.” He felt Hunk relax a little bit, both physically and emotionally. “Anyway, there was never a ghost—it was all me.”

“Lance, did you tell anyone that these things were happening to you?” Coran asked.

Lance shook his head. “I pretended like it wasn’t happening.” He looked down with defeated eyes. “But I could only do that for so long …”

\-----

_Eleven-year-old Lance needed a break from class. He had not been getting good sleep lately. His dreams were chaotic. They were often filled with different events, which he could not understand until after they happened. A while ago, Lance found out that his dreams were of actual events._

_It happened after he dreamed of the hurricane that came with an earthquake. He told Rachel about his dream, but she said he was crazy. Then the weather events happened and she became frightened of him._

_That, coupled with the sadness in his house left over from Papí’s death, had him drained. He kept feeling things that he knew he should not be feeling. He knew the difference between his own emotions and emotions from other people. He did not like getting these foreign feelings. He would be having a nice day one minute, but then he would walk by someone having a bad day and take on their emotions. It was torture._

_“No matter what you feel, or what you hear … you must ignore it.”_

_Papí’s words from a year before still confused and haunted him. He did not know what Papí meant, but he guessed it had something to do with what was happening to him. Lance discovered that the more people that were around him, the weirder things got. So he had to get away from the classroom; if only for a few minutes. He was given permission to go to the restroom (after promising the teacher that it WAS, in fact, an emergency)._

_Suddenly, Lance felt a big sneeze coming on_ “AHHH-CHOO!” _He sniffled a bit and rubbed his nose. Within the next second, every single locker door loudly swung open with a loud BANG … all at once. Now **that** was scary. The sound was so loud that Lance expected someone to come running to see what the loud sound was. The frightened pre-teen boy looked up and down the hall. This event was too much of a coincidence for it **not** to be his fault. _

_Forgetting his trip to the bathroom, Lance ran to the nurse, where he could lie down for a while._

\-----

“You caused an entire hall of lockers to fly open just by sneezing?!” Pidge asked with interest. Lance did not need his empathic abilities to feel her excitement. The sparkle in her eye was enough to give it away.

He nodded. “To them, it’s still a mystery how it happened. After that, I dug around into anything I could find on the paranormal. Eventually that led me to researching telekinesis and other things.” The once-Blue-now-Red Paladin sighed. “I tried to keep my promise to Papí, but it just kept getting worse!” 

Lance stood up and walked a lap around the … _round_ room to keep everything going on in his head in check. He had to filter through his teammates’ thoughts, his own thoughts, their feelings, his own feelings and his memories. It was all giving him a headache. “I couldn’t tell anyone because Cuba’s a small country, so word spreads; and a lot of people in Varadero are superstitious.” Lance had a sad, far off look on his face. “I couldn’t do that to my mom.”

“So, you’ve been keeping it in?” Shiro asked.

Lance bit his lip. “Not exactly … there was one other incident …”

\-----

_It was night and thirteen-year-old Lance got into an argument with his sixteen-year-old brother, Marco. It was getting quite heated._

_“I know you took my keys! You’re always taking things!” Marco yelled._

_“I told you I didn’t do it!” Both brothers were nose to nose in each other’s faces. Marco towered over Lance’s shorter figure._

_“Oh, like you didn’t steal Veronica’s glasses? Or Luiz’s razor? They were all under your bed!”_

_Lance grunted. He knew he could do unexplainable things, but stealing was not one of those things. “I don’t know how they got there!”_

_“Oh, I do, you’re a thief!”_

_“No I’m not, you butthead!”_

_“You’re just trying to get attention. You’ve been acting weird since Papí died.”_

_Lance was getting really angry. Papí’s death was a sensitive subject for the whole family, but Lance especially, since he was the one that found him. “Shut. Up.” The younger brother said in warning._

_Marco smirked, seeing Lance’s eye start to twitch in anger. “You probably made him do it,”_

_“I said shut up!” The volume of his voice was growing._

_“You killed our father! You’re the reason he’s dead!”_

_Lance threw himself towards Marco with an angry cry. The two brothers rolled on the living room floor, throwing punches and smacking each other. Lance managed to elbow Marco in the nose; not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to make it bleed. Marco punched Lance in the face._

_Finally, the fight was broken up by their mother. “That is enough out of the both of you!” She yelled as she broke them up._

_“He came at me first!” Marco yelled, pointing a finger at his younger brother._

_“He accused me of being a thief!” Lance replied. He was going to add that he was also accused of being a murderer too, but Mamá stopped him before he could._

_“ENOUGH! I don’t want to hear it!” She turned to her middle child first. “Marco, go to your room. I will deal with you later.” Both Marco and Lance knew that when Mamá said “deal with you later,” that meant that that person was going to get the harsher punishment._

_“You never treat Lance like this ... The golden child gets away with everything ...”_

_It was quiet, but the boy still heard it. He was sick of being accused of things. **“THAT’S NOT TRUE!!!”** Lance screamed from the top of his lungs. “I’m no “golden child!” I get in trouble all the time! I’m not a mama’s boy!” Lance drew in a deep breath when he was finished with his outburst. He looked up to see both Mamá and Marco starting at him with shock._

_“Mijó, what are you talking about?” Mama asked._

_Lance pointed at his brother again. “Marco called me a mama’s boy!”_

_Mamá looked back at Marco, who was still stunned and then back at Lance. “What are you talking about? Marco didn’t say anything.” Lance stared at his mother in disbelief._

\-----

“You’re positive you heard your brother speak?” Allura asked.

Lance nodded. “Oh yeah, he said it … he just didn’t say it _out loud_ …” The team looked at him with anticipation. Hunk, Pidge, Keith and Coran’s eyes all widened in realization.

“I suppose that’s when you came clean to your mom?” Shiro suggested.

“Yeah … we had a long talk that night …”

\---

_A few hours after Lance and Marco’s dispute, Lance found himself and his mother in the kitchen, talking. It was eerily similar to the night Papí had that talk with him three years earlier. Lance ended up telling his mother everything, from the dreadful feeling before Papi’s death, to his reaction to Marco’s thoughts earlier that evening._

_Mama sighed. He could hear her mumble something. He did not hear the physical words clearly, but he picked up her thoughts of, **“¿Por qué tiene que ser él?” Mama took a breath. “Mijó, I’m going to share something with you that no one, not even your brothers and sisters know …”_

_Lance listened in anticipation. “What is it, Mamá?”_

_The woman bit her lip. “Your father’s family … is cursed,” Lance gasped, “… and that curse … is why your Papí … did what he did.”_

_Lance’s stomach dropped. How was he supposed to react to that? Obviously, he had inherited his father’s curse. Papí’s warning suddenly made so much sense. Maybe the man had sensed that Lance had the curse too? If that was true, then he was angry with Papí. How dare that man leave him like that?! The boy looked up at his mother with fearful, teary eyes. “Mama, I want it to stop ...”_

_At that, Mamá scooped up her youngest son and rocked him in her arms. “I promise, Mijó … I promise that I will find a way to help you.” Lance buried himself in his mother’s warmth. He could feel her fear. She feared that Lance would ultimately follow in his father’s footsteps. Truth be told, Lance was scared of that too._

\-----

“So that’s why you refer to your abilities as a “curse,” because your mother called them that …” Allura spoke aloud.

Lance shrugged, emotionally exhausted. “She wasn’t wrong …”

“So, you told your mother,” Shiro surmised, stroking his chin in thought, “then what happened?”

“My mom tried to find someone that could help. When I was fourteen, she found a doctor that said that she could help.” Lance dug the empty pill bottle out of his pocket. “That’s where I got this.”

Pidge tilted her head. “You just told your secret to a stranger? I find that hard to believe.”

Yes, and Lance could feel that doubt. “She wasn’t just any “stranger,” she was a …” Lance blinked, trying to come up with the word, “oh, what did she say … um …” He scratched his head, “um …. A …para-para … para-psychologist! That’s it.” He snapped his fingers and pointed when he finally thought of the word.

“Para-psychologist?” Hunk echoed.

Lance nodded. “Yeah, she specializes in people like ...” Lance looked around for a second, trying to find the right word, “... _people_ like me. She was the one that gave me the medicine.” Lance’s eyes squinted and his lips settled for a second. “She tried to get me to understand the things that I can do, but … all I wanted was for everything to stop.” He stiffened for a second while staring ahead as if he was in a trance, before returning to normal. “Also, Allura, you might want to move.”

Allura was about to ask why, when all of a sudden, she jumped up with a shriek. Four small heads popped up from where she had been sitting. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” The mice squeaked at she scooped them up. “Are you alright? How long have you been there?” She continued to respond to their little squeaks. 

The look on Lotor’s face was a cross between fear and shock, as he watched the Altean Princess converse with the little rats. He looked at the Paladins, silently asking if she was crazy or not.

“Don’t tell me you can talk to them too …” Keith groaned.

Lance smirked. “Only when they try to talk to Allura.” He casually stated.

“You mean this is a regular occurrence …?” Lotor asked, gesturing to Allura as she continued to talk to the mice, still not knowing how to react to it.

Pidge smirked. “Yup, happens all the time.” She tilted her head in an innocent manner. “You’re okay with that, aren’t you, Lotor?”

Lotor knew that the Green Paladin was looking to make him uncomfortable, but he was determined not to catch the bait. “Well, I suppose it is no more unusual than finding out that one of you has unexplainable abilities.” He proudly stated.

“Oh, don’t even try! You’re _totally_ freaked out!” Lance called him out.

Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Coran all laughed at Lotor’s expense. Keith snickered, but quickly covered his mouth.

Allura set the mice on her shoulder and cleared her throat. “A-HEM! I believe we were talking about Lance’s abilities, not making fun of Lotor.” The Galran Prince smiled at the princess for coming to his defense.

Pidge shrugged. “She’s right,” she then turned back toward her teammates and whispered with a smirk on her face, “that’s not scheduled until later on.” 

Lance and Hunk laughed.

“Okay, guys, let’s stay on topic,” Shiro said. Although, he sounded as if he had been laughing quietly, “so now we know about Lance’s gifts. The question we have now is ... where do we go from here?”

Coran raised his hand. “Well I do have a concern, we still don’t know why he bleeds from his eyes when he uses his powers.”

Lance shook his head. “Even I don’t know why that happens. I just suspected that it was a side effect of the curse.”

Pidge tapped the side of her face in thought. “Well, I’ve been putting together a list of Lance’s powers, based on his story alone. So far, I’ve got: telekinesis, telepathy, empathy, aura reading and clairvoyance.” She tacked them off with her fingers as she listed them. “Did I get them all?” 

Lance looked to his side, letting out a small whine. “Well, there is one more thing I can do, but it might freak you guys out.”

Hunk scoffed. “Dude, you stopped an Ion Cannon _with your brain_.” He emphasized by placing his fingers on his temples and crossing his eyes. “We’re way past freaked out!”

Lance sighed. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” 

Lance settled himself comfortably in his spot and closed his eyes. There was nothing but absolute silence for about a tick.

“Are you doing it yet?” Hunk said, breaking the silence.

Lance screamed in surprise. “Hunk! Don’t do that, you broke my concentration!”

“Gee, I’m sorry …”

Lance sighed and closed his eyes again. Another moment of silence passed, before Lance’s head drooped onto his chest. The Paladins, Allura, Coran and Lotor all looked at each other in confusion.

Suddenly, something appeared right next to Lotor. _‘Hello.’_

**_“GOOD ANCIENTS!”_** Lotor screamed, jumping and placing a hand over his heart. An apparition of Lance appeared right beside him. Everyone looked from Lance to the apparition. It was Lance, but he was glowing, his voice had an echo to it, and he was transparent.

“How can you be in two places at once?!?!” Coran asked in freight.

Pidge’s eyes lit up as she jumped out of her seat. **_“ASTRO PROJECTION!! YOU CAN DO ASTRO PROJECTION!!!”_**

The apparition of Lance folded his arms and smiled. _'Yup.'_ He said with an otherworldly echo.

“I have never heard of anything like this … how is this possible?” Allura asked in wonder.

_‘Well, I’m no—'_ the apparition suddenly stopped talking when Hunk pushed his hands literally into the space, _‘—Hunk, what are you doing?’_

“Whoa … it’s like just a little pocket of cold air here--can you feel this?” The big boy asked as he moved his hands around the spot where Lance’s apparition stood.

_'Both yes, and no; so, would you stop it, please?'_

“Sorry.” Hunk moved away from his, currently ghostly, friend.

_‘Anyway, I’m not actually here,’_ Lance gestured to himself, _‘I’m over there.’_ He pointed to his body, which was still sitting in the same spot in the exact same way, with his head lulled against his chest.

__“Wait a second …” Keith stood next to Lance’s body, but looked at the apparition, “is your body dead right now?!”_ _

Apparition Lance shrugged his shoulders. _‘Not yet …’_

____Keith’s eyes widened, probably in both dread and anger. “What do you mean “not yet?”_ _ _ _

Lance’s apparition was about to speak, when suddenly he hunched over. _‘One sec …’_ In the next second, the apparition disappeared and Lance’s body inhaled a deep, loud breath that startled everyone else in the room. He cradled his head. “Ow, oh ow, oh, I forgot how much of a headache that causes … Coran, can I get some water and some pain killers, please?” 

____Coran nodded. “Certainly.”_ _ _ _

____“Lance, what were you talking about when you said that your body wasn’t dead yet?” Shiro asked with that authoritative stare that he was famous for._ _ _ _

____“Well, projecting like that comes with some … limits.” At that moment, Coran returned with a few pills and a water pouch, which Lance eagerly accepted._ _ _ _

____“What kind of limits?” Shiro pressed._ _ _ _

____Lance took a very long swig from his water pouch, emptying most of it. “Like, I can only project for approximately three minutes before my body starts to shut down._ _ _ _

____Hunk grabbed Lance by his arms again and held the Red Paladin in front of himself. “What do you mean shut down? And how long have you known this?! Which begs the question of how do you know of those limits in the first place!!!” Hunk’s anxiety was getting the best of him._ _ _ _

____Lance pulled wrenched himself out of Hunk’s tight hold and quickly moved away before he absorbed Hunk’s anxiety again. “Whoa, whoa, one question at a time, big guy!” He turned to address everyone else in the room. “Look, I know what the limits are, and I promise I won’t go over them, okay? But right now, … I really just want to sleep …” He clutched his head, shaking it a little like he was thinking about too many things at once (which he was). “You guys need time to get used to this, and … I know it’s hard to take in.” He turned towards the door that lead to the bedrooms. “And if I can’t hide them anymore, I need to learn how to control them …” He said in a melancholy tone. Just thinking of trying to control his powers made Lance’s eyes feel like they were filling up with blood._ _ _ _

____Allura approached and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry we can’t help you more with this, Lance.”_ _ _ _

____Lance smiled at her and turned towards his friends. He could feel that they really wanted to help them. “Thanks, but …” the smile fell from his face, “no one can help me …”_ _ _ _

____“…That’s not entirely true …” Lotor quietly said. All eyes turned to the Galran Prince, who had a hand to his chin in thought._ _ _ _

____“What are you talking about? I don’t know about you, but the rest of us don’t have psychic powers!” Pidge sarcastically said._ _ _ _

____Lotor glared at her before replying, “Well, you obviously do not possess those talents,” Pidge folded her arms and glared back, “but I know of others that do.”_ _ _ _

____“What do you mean, Lotor?” Allura asked._ _ _ _

____He turned to her, but addressed the entire room. “During my exile, I came across many different places and species that are considered rarities.” He looked off as he recalled a certain memory. “One of those species had the same talents as the Red Paladin.”_ _ _ _


	5. Making a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team makes a plan to visit a planet, where the inhabitants are all psychic. 
> 
> Meanwhile, Lance becomes lost in his own little world, courtesy of the curse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this planet that I’m using (at least the name) is my own creation. It’s a Planet I use for my own big projects, but I’m going to go ahead and use it for this little project here, too.
> 
> Oh, also I’m trying out a different writing style. One that gets more into a character’s head. I think it’s much more lively than my old style, which just made the narration sound so robotic.
> 
> And there are a few editing issues that I’ve repeatedly tried to fix, but I typed this whole thing on my phone, so try as I might, I just can’t fix them. Sorry. You’ll know then when you see them.  
> *** Pronounced Cy-pro-see

An uncomfortable silence filled the room as everyone stared at Lotor, taking in his words. Lance’s eyes moved from person to person. All of their confused and shocked thoughts filled his head like a loud concert (a loud concert of _tone-deaf people_ ) at once, making it hard for him to focus. He was just about to look further into Lotor’s mind, but Pidge broke his concentration. 

“Are you saying that you know of an  _entire planet_ full of psychics?” Her tone dripped with suspicion.

Lance saw Lotor roll his eyes in the most condescending way possible, and caught his stray thought of, ‘ _this little green **insect** is trying my patience_ ,’ which made the psychic Paladin bite his lip to keep from laughing.

“Yes, it is where I—” Lotor suddenly stopped himself mid-sentence. 

Lance wondered why for a second, butthen he saw Lotor’s deep, violet aura flare up before his eyes—oh geez,  _of course_ it was purple; how cliche’ for a  _Galra_. It showed the Red Paladin images of one of Lotor’s lady friends—his generals—more specifically the scary lizard one. Perhaps Lotor had not mean to, but he had given Lance access to the last memory that he had of the chick— Narti,  sorry! Lance’s breath caught in his throat when he saw the moment of Narti’s death. As he watched the memory play out before him, the psychic boy felt all of Lotor’s emotions associated with it ranging from rage, to betrayal, to sadness, and finally, determination. What was worse, he couldn’t bring himself to even be angry over the murder. One aspect of the curse allowed him to see events through others’ perspectives, which gave him _waaaaaaay_ too much understanding.

The beginnings of blood began to pool around Lance’s lower eyelids as he continued to watch. He almost toppled over from the onslaught of emotions, but hearing Pidge’s angry voice was enough to snap him out of it before he could. Yeah, that tended to happen a lot. Want Lance’s attention? Get Pidge mad and loud. Wait, no—strike that! He often accomplished that on his own.

“Where you  _what_?” 

Lance blinked rapidly in order to bring himself back to the present. Another reason why he hated his curse—it overtook him when he least expected it, and there was nothing he could do except ride through it. Shaking it off, he looked at everyone else to see whether or not they had seen his little episode; they hadn’t, which was fine by him—it was not like he had, oh maybe, gone into his own  _overly-flooded-with-foreign-emotions-and-thoughts-that-he-didn’t-need-or-want_ head and had gotten lost in  _**someone else’s**_ memory for a tick, and had not been noticed before. Yeah, thanks for the concern, guys; love ya too. He ran his hands over his bloody eyes before the tears could fall.

Meanwhile, Lotor squared his shoulders and folded his arms before turning his perpetually sharp gaze away from Team Voltron. “Nothing. It is of no significance.” 

Lance was still reeling from the information he was (forcefully) just given. While everyone else was arguing, he was finally able to shake off Lotor’s emotions—only to be assaulted by a spike in Pidge’s anger (what was _with_ her  today?). 

“What do you mean, ‘ _of no significance?_ ’ She demanded loudly, using air quotes while mocking Lotor’s accent.

The Space-Prince waved his hand before her. “Never you mind! Let us focus on getting to their plane—”

Pidge stomped over to the Galra-slash-Altean hybrid, standing in his personal space. Their height difference alone, was comical—since she only came up to just above his waist—but added with Lotor’s unenthused expression was downright hilarious in Lance’s eyes.

The Green Paladin folded her short arms as she glared. “—What’s the matter, Lotor?” She slowly tilted her head to the side (man, how was her neck able to _bend_ like that?!). “Got something to hide? Are you lyi—” Lotor’s eye twitched, and Lance could—quite literally—foresee a nasty war of words breaking out. That was the last thing be needed with a growing migraine; so he cut her off as fast as he could. 

“He’s not lying,” All eyes turned to the reluctant psychic, who was rubbing his temples with his fingers, trying to shake off the foreign emotions. He never quite learned how to let go of the emotions he absorbed, so it usually took awhile for him to snap out of it. Finally able to get a moment’s peace in his head, however short-lived it may be, he glared at Pidge, which surprised the small Paladin, “and you need back off of Lotor!” Pidge’s face showed shock, which Lance could feel. He winced, not liking having to deal with  another emotion. “Stop blaming him for what happened to your family!” Lance knew he had created a scene by revealing a secret, but being so overwhelmed with all of the feelings that he  couldn’t help but absorb, he just didn’t have the strength to care for the moment.

The look on Pidge’s face was a cross between shock, offense and a little betrayal. Maybe a combination of all three. Yup, just checked. Combo beef. She probably did not consciously know that she harbored such a prejudice—Lance had come into contact with that more often than not.

“I don’t—”

“ _You do!_ ” Pidge, along with the others in the room flinched at Lance’s sharp tone. “And you know you do, that’s why you’ve been so hostile towards him!” Wow. The young psychic was vaguely aware that he was being a bit of a hypocrite at the moment. While normally Lance would let Pidge win their little spats, this time he was too fed up—too  _drained_ —to care. He placed a hand over his chest, like he was about to make a vow. “Believe me, I would love nothing more than to blame Lotor for  **_everything_** ,” His eyes moved to said Prince, who scowled at him, but then turned back to Pidge, “but it’s not his fault that your dad and brother were space-POWs.” Lance could feel Pidge’s offense at being called out. “You’ve been looking for any excuse to rail on him, and I’m getting  _sick of feeling that anger!_ ” By the time he finished his diatribe, Lance had lifted his clenched fists to face-level and his voice had climbed a couple of octaves. 

Shiro, Hunk, Keith, Allura and Coran all watched the exchange with bated breath. They stared at Lance, never before hearing him rant with such seriousness (or irritation) in his tone before. It was well known throughout the team that Pidge was usually able to say what she wanted without fear of retaliation; so seeing Lance(or  anyone, for that matter) call her out was a new experience. 

The youngest Paladin tried to psych Lanceout by staring him down, mentally asking if he was _seriously_ standing up to her.

“ _Yes I am_ .” Lance spoke aloud, making sure to enunciate each syllable. Pidge bristled, momentarily forgetting about her teammate’s telepathy.

The two of them continued to stare at each other for a good, long length of time. Pidge hardened her gaze—which usually worked when it came to Lance—but, apparently not this time. It seemed that he was determined not to budge. Finally, the Green Paladin realized that she was fighting a losing battle. _The_ _Eye of Shame’s_ no fun is it,  _little Miss Priss_ ( something he had heard Mamá call Veronica and Rachel when they acted out. Don’t ask him to give a definition for it)! 

She sighed. “Okay, okay ...” Begrudgingly, she turned to Lotor, “ ... s’rry ...” she mumbled. 

Lance rolled his eyes, hearing, more than feeling, the insincerity of that half-assed apology. But Lotor nodded in acceptance anyway, before then looking towards Lance and nodding a thanks his way. The psychic Paladin leered at him with a serious, yet sympathetic look in his bloodshot eyes. Lotor’s own eyes widened a bit, suddenly realizing that the Red Paladin knew what happened to Narti. Lance looked away, silently signaling that he would keep the secret.

“Tell us about this race, Lotor.” Allura said, placing her hand on his arm. Lance bristled at the action. He tried to push away the fuzzy feelings that were wafting his way through Allura’s pink aura.

“Thank you,” Ugh, the sickeningly sweet smile that made its way onto that stupid Galra’s face made Lance almost dry heave. Lotor cleared his throat and continued, “as I was saying, there is a planet where the native inhabitants possess the same special abilities as the Red Paladin.”

“Every one of them?” Hunk asked.

Lotor shrugged. “Well, they may not all have _every_ ability, but yes, in a sense. Each has a unique mental gift.” 

Coran crosses his arms and scoffed. “I’ve never heard of such a species! And I pride myself on having knowledge of all life forms!” He twirled his mustache, letting it go with a  _boing_.

The Galra Prince sighed. “Well, I imagine that you wouldn’t. Their galaxy exists on the more ... outer regions of the universe, well outside the empire’s reach. Here, I’ll show you.” He looked towards Allura, silently asking for permission. She nodded and Lotor proceeded to inject a small chip, that he extracted from the gauntlet in his armor, into the Castle’s mainstream.

Within the next second, the holographic star map lit up the main area of the bridge. After another tick, the map expanded, now covering the rest of the room. The Paladins stared at it in awe.

“Wow ... I didn’t know there was  _so much_ we haven’t seen yet!” Hunk stated, gaping at the updated map. The rest of the team muttered in quiet agreement. 

For what it was worth, Lance had expected Lotor to adjust the map so that the specific location was right in front of him, the way he had seen Allura and Coran do in the past. Instead, the Galra Prince walked over to the far corner of the bridge. He pointed to a very small elliptical galaxy. “Here.” 

The team (and Keith) joined him in the back corner of the bridge to get a better look. “This is ***Cyproci. It is the only planet in its binary system capable of sustaining life.” Lotor tapped the planet and it expanded, giving everyone a better view of its terrains. “Cyproci’s inhabitants are quite peaceful. They communicate and interact with each other through their minds. As I stated earlier, most of them only possess one mental ability at a time. But their leader, a monk named Gruzko, possesses multiple abilities.”

Allura stepped up to the map and examined the planet. She seemed to be studying the proximity of Cyproci and the Castle’s current location. “It looks like it would take awhile to get to, even with a wormhole ...”

The discussion continued, with the other Paladins jumping in from time to time, while Lance began to zone out. Not only could he hear all the complex thoughts going on in Allura’s head, but the stray thoughts of, “ _detour_ ,” “ _long time_ ,” and “ _delay_ ,” made him inwardly flinch. The last thing he wanted to do was become a burden and a distraction to the team.The once-Blue-now-Red Paladin began to discreetly back away from the scene.Sometimes, being in Allura’s head **_really_** gave him a headache—not that he often went into her head, mind you.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lance jumped with a small yelp at Keith’s voice right in his ear. He knew that the newbie Blade was there, he had just been too focused on other things to give him much thought. “W-what’re you talking abo-about? I’m fine ...” Boy, that sounded weak, even to his own ears. There was no way Keith was gonna believe that lame statement. 

Keith rolled his eyes with a scoff. “Puh-leez,” yup, called it. Mullet-boy didn’t buy it for a second. Damn him and his superiority complex when it came to Lance! “I may not have  _psychic powers_ ,” Lance’s fists clenched in annoyance. He should have known better than to let  _Keith_ , of all people, find out his secret, “but I can tell that you’re not  fine.” The former Red Paladin pointed at the currently-sitting Red Paladin. “For one thing, your eyes are bleeding.”

Lance quickly wiped his eyes, smearing the blood on his jacket sleeve. Great; now he was going to have to find the space equivalent to Oxy-Clean. “That doesn’t mean anything ...” he mumbled.

“It means you’re using your powers.” Keith did not mean to sound so jealous, but Lance felt it radiating off of him, clear as day. With everything going around in his head, the psychic Paladin could not help but enjoy it for the moment. Yeah, call him petty, but it was nice to have something special that Keith couldn’t claim (for once).

“I’m not _trying_ to ,”

Wait, why did the chatter stop?

He suddenly realized that Keith had not been exactly quiet when voicing his concern. Looking up, the two boys had apparently gained the attention of everyone else. Lance began to panic, which caused him to quickly start absorbing the worry and confusion of the others in the room. He was not used to this kind of attention, and it made him uncomfortable. After taking a moment to organize all of the continuously piling up thoughts entering his head—despite he pain it was causing, he realized that they were waiting for him to respond.  _ Damn this  **curse**! _ 

The reluctant psychic swallowed the lump in his throat. He just wanted to go hide in his room. Around inanimate objects. That can’t think. Or feel. Or back-talk him. At that moment, that would have been his paradise. “Well,” he clapped his hands together once, “sounds like we’ve got a solid plan.”

The small thoughts of,

‘ _What’s with him,_ ’

‘ _Loser ..._ ’

‘ _Maybe he’s hungry, I sure am,_ ’

‘ _Uncouth, as usual,_ ’

‘ _Drama queen_ ,’

‘ _Can’t get it together,_ ’

‘ _Needs medical help,_ ’

were all just adding to his growing migraine. Lance wiped his eyes again, the blood now mixing with regular tears, andbacked towards the door again. Now that the secret was out, handling the curse was going to be much more difficult to deal with, and being in close proximity to so many minds at once was draining his energy, “now if you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna,” he pointed a thumb behind him to the door, “gonna go try and ...” he let the sentence float in the air.

“Lance, do you need time to yourself for awhile?” Shiro asked with a soft smile. Lance may be the psychic here, but he was always amazed at Shiro’s ability to accurately read people. The Red Paladin rapidly nodded his head. He could feel his own anxious energy emitting through the air. He briefly wondered if anyone else could sense it, considering that they weren’t the ones dealing with his curse.

The team leader’s smile widened. “Okay, go and rest up. We’ll let you know the minute we come up with a plan.”

Lance was practically out of the room before Shiro could even finish his sentence. “I already know ...” he bitterly mumbled to himself on his way out.

—

A few vargas later, Hunk walked down the Castle’s residential hall, where the Paladins’ rooms were located. He carried a plate of food, a new concoction that he had been experimenting with, in his hand. It was an ice-breaker, of sorts. He was hoping that a snack would make his best friend more comfortable. 

Lance had taken off so quickly that they never got a chance to talk. Hopefully they could now.

The Yellow Paladin stood outside of Lance’s room. He raised his fist to knock, but before he could even make contact with the door—

“—Come on in, Hunk.” A voice from behind said door spoke up. 

Hunk sighed as a chill went down his spine. “ _Man_ , that’s gonna take some getting used to ...” Aliens and magic were one thing, but this whole Lance-is-psychic stuff was just downright  _spooky_. Suddenly he heard a loud crash and Lance letting out, quite the colorful, string of curses.

On the other side of the door, Hunk found his fellow Paladin standing idly in the middle of a trashed bedroom. The Yellow Paladin took a look around the room. Bottles were all over the floor—some of them spilled open, drawers were pulled out, clothes were strewn all over, and blankets littered the floor. His gaze then settled on Lance, who just stood there in the middle, looking at him with an expression that was a cross between guilt and annoyance.

“Uh ... what’s going on, Buddy?”

Lance shrugged. “I was trying to get control over the curse, but ...” he gestured to the mess around the room, “it was too much ...”

Yeah, Hunk could tell. Not by the mess, but by the state of his best friend’s eyes. Trails of blood leaked from them, and they looked tired with stress—and that was  without the blood. They also sported heavy bags, like he had been unable to sleep for quite awhile. Judging from the earlier conversation, he probably hadn’t.  

The larger Paladin went to go sit on the bed by Lance, making sure not to trip overanything. 

In Lance’s perspective, it was a little funny watching Hunk navigate his way through the mess. He knew Hunk was on his way, hearing his thoughts from all the way down the hall. Hearing the “spooky” comment is what made Lance lose his focus. 

Yeah, he had to agree with that. The curse made it possible for him to see just how “spooky” it was through others’ eyes. If they thought being witness to it was spooky, they should try living with it. Lance **dared** anyone to wish to be in his shoes.

As Lance lost himself in his own thoughts—he was  _pretty sure_ they were his own thoughts—Hunk sat beside him on the bed and offered him a small cloth to clean his face.  

“You should be resting and not worrying about that. That’s why we’re going to this Cyproci place.” Hunk shared the snack with Lance after he wiped the blood from his eyes. The Red Paladin’s hands were shaking as he cautiously picked one up and just looked at it.

Lance let out a long sigh. “I was hoping that by teaching myself, then we wouldn’t have to go there,”

“But we’re going there for you—“

“I know! I know!”

Lance fell backwards into his bed and hid his face in his pillow. 

“What’s really going on, Lance?” 

The Red Paladin leaned in his side, facing Hunk. “What, are _you_ psychic now?” He knew the answer; he was just being facetious. 

Hunk laughed with a shrug. “Nah, man. I just know you. Something’s going on in that noggin of yours.” He said, playfully tapping Lance on the head as he spoke. That was an understatement, and most times, it wasn’t his own doing.

Lance let out another sigh. He was so tired of keeping everything to himself. Obviously that tactic doesn’t work. So he decided to spill his guts. 

“It gets so loud in my head with just you guys around me.” Lance looked up at Hunk with tired eyes. “I ran out of my medicine a few movements before the last time we were planet-side. I thought I could handle it,” Lance looked (and sounded) so miserable, so counter to his usual character that it broke Hunk’s heart, “but after that battle, I got so bombarded by the locals’ thoughts and emotions within  minutes , that I had to run back to the Castle, and I barely made it to my room before I passed out.” Lance sat up and cradled his head, still hearing all the noise from that time that had stayed with him.

Hunk’s own eyes narrowed at Lance’s story. He remembered that mission. They were being thanked for saving a planet that the Galra had been mining resources from, only to notice that Lance had disappeared right after the fight. When they finally found him again, Shiro ripped into him about humility and responsibility. In hindsight, while he had taken the verbal beating silently, it now made sense why Lance—someone who _thrived_ on attention and fun—left before the victory lap. 

Lance continued his story. “I couldn’t even get any restful sleep because I had a vision of Zarkon’s resurrection.”

“What?!” Hunk yelled, causing Lance to flinch. “You knew Zarkon was still alive this whole time and you didn’t say anything?!”

Lance held out his arms. “What was I gonna say, Hunk? ‘ _Hey, I think the evil dictator we killed is still skipping around. How do I know? Oh, I dreamed it._ ’ Yeah, that would have gone over well.” 

Hunk grimaced, not used to hearing such negativity in Lance’s words. But he supposed going such a long time without restful sleep would do that to someone.

The Red Paladin fell back onto his bed, covering his eyes with his forearm. “If it’s like that on other planets, can you imagine how _bad_ it’s gonna be on a planet full of psychics?”

Ouch, no. Hunk could not imagine that—and Lance knew that. He had a good point. On the one hand, having so many people rummaging around in your head was a total invasion of privacy; which was why Lance tried  not to do that. But on the other hand ...

“Look at it this way, dude,” Lance gazed at his best friend with the most worn out look that Hunk had ever seen. Believe it or not, Lance did not know what Hunk was about to say, so he used his waning strength to listen, “if nothing else, maybe these guys can teach you a way of dealing with your powers.” The Red Paladin grimaced at his curse being referred to as “ _powers_.” That made them sound like a blessing, but they weren’t! To him they were a nuisance. “Supposedly, everyone on that planet’s a psychic; so  _someone_ has got to be able to help you somehow.”

Ah, good ol’ Hunk, always looking on the positive side of things. He was delusional. Lance couldn’t see any good coming from this.

However, Hunk was right about one thing. If Lance could learn to at least live with the curse, then maybe he would be okay. He didn’t want special “ _powers_ ;” all he wanted was just to feel normal again. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right!”

Wow, Lance felt a thousand times better now. Well, technically his head was still pounding, and there was still a lot of noise, but Hunk was able to help him push everything to the side, even if it was just for a little while. Hunk had a way of doing that, taking Lance’s mind off his problems—and the food helped, too. He had never been more grateful for his best friend thanat that moment.

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, just basking in each other’s company and eating the snacks.

“Hey, just out of curiosity,” Hunk started with his mouth full before swallowing, “when you see into people’s minds, do you ever ...” he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “you know ... see ... dreams, or whatever ...?”

Lance chuckled. Oh yeah, he saw dreams (whether he liked it or not ... and  **_yeesh_** , Pidge had some  _really sick_ dreams that he wished he could forget!) “Well, sometimes. I don’t choose what I see, the images just pop out at me.”

Hunk visibly relaxed. “Oh. So, you don’t—” 

“But~” Lance smirked, “if you’re talking about that nightmare of yours with that food-goo monster,” and just like that, Hunk tensed up again. Heh, this was fun; okay, there were _some_ perks to this curse “don’t worry, Big Guy; your secret’s safe with me.” 

Hunk let out a loud, relaxed exhale and Lance patted him on the back. “Oh good, thanks, man.”

“No problem.

...

...

... 

“So what does Keith dream about?”

Ahh, nothing like _juicy_ gossip to make Lance feel like himself again! “Oh, you’re never gonna believe how **_freaky_** this is! So, it takes place in the desert, right ...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have gone a little overboard with the italics and boldings, but it’s for emphasis!


	6. Cyproci

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team arrives on Cyproci and Lance meets his new mentor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re like me, then you read these things with the characters’ assigned voice actors. 
> 
> Well, I’ve decided, that if Gruzko were an actual character, his voice actor would be Wallace Shawn. He’s the guy that does the voice of Rex in the Toy Story franchise. I don’t know why, but when I thought up this character, Wallace Shawn’s voice just popped into my mind.
> 
> Oh, and please remember that this whole thing was done on my phone. While I reread and try to edit, there are certain formatting details that I just can’t change. Thanks!

They were _finally_ approaching the planet known as Cyproci. It had taken longer than they would have liked to get there. And _oh boy,_ was it a journey!

It was three movements ago ...

Keith had to return to the Blades, but Lance secretly felt his reluctance to do so, really wanting to see how Lance would fit in with other psychics. He wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or flattered at the notion.

As soon as Lance was well enough, Allura had created a wormhole to the halfway point. She couldn’t wormhole the whole way without exhausting herself out of existence completely, so halfway was the next best thing. At that point Lotor guided them he rest of the way. He had said it would be dangerous, but he was quite vague about what they would face.

Not only did they have to pass through a few of the ... meh, somewhat more common space phenomena, such as rapidly spinning pulsar blasts that they were barely able to dodge every few ticks when they approached said pulsar (if you don’t know what a pulsar is, look it up. You do **NOT** want to be in its path—take Lance’s word for it), and having to fight against the gravitational pull of a  _DOUBLE QUAZAR_ (thanks for the heads up on that one, Lotor) that forced the team to form Voltron just to get away from it (and even then, they almost didn’t make it), but they also had to race through, surprisingly enough, a stampede of humongous space-bison. 

They were **MASSIVE**. At least a hundred times bigger than any planet they have seen. The sounds they made reminded Lance of whales in the ocean ... only more ear-splitting to listen to ... literally. They had to activate the Castle’s particle barrier so that their ear drums did not explode from the noise (and it barely made it through). The bison blended in with the everlasting blackness of space, but some seemed to be made up of blasts of colorful, nebulae. It was almost as if they did not have physical bodies to gaze upon—which was a completely _WRONG_ assumption. If not for their aurora-like outlines, the Castle would have crashed into the first bison that they encountered. Luckily, Lance was able to see their auras, so he jumped onto Allura’s podium and navigated them through the stampede as quickly as he could ... right before both he and Hunk fainted (Hunk from terror and Lance from using too much energy). As much as it was an odd and a _fantastically beautiful_ sight to behold, it was still **terrifying** all the same. 

There were also the malfunctions caused by mysterious cosmic rays. They kept somehow throwing off the Castle’s sensors (at one point they ended up back with the space-bison again. Thanks, but no thanks). The source of those rays was never found.

_Hot damn._ Finally, they reached the small elliptical galaxy. It was strange how it was the only object in a massive void (a pocket of space unoccupied by anything and, unlike black holes, light can pass through). It was ominous, to say the least. 

Suddenly, a weird sensation came over Lance. It was almost like there was a weight upon him. It became hard to breathe. The Red Paladin clenched his chest on reflex. 

“Coran ...”

The ginger-haired Altean man turned to look at him. “Yes, Lance?”

The psychic Paladin swallowed the lump in his throat. This feeling was familiar, for some reason. He continued to stare at Cyproci as they approached it. “Land the castle in a forest.”

At that, all eyes turned to him simultaneously in confusion, but Lance never looked away from the planet, mesmerized by it. 

“Is something wrong, Lance?” Allura chimed from her podium. 

Lance was surprised that she didn’t feel it. After all, she had special powers too; but then again, her powers were not _psychic_ -based. He shook his head slowly, still staring at Cyproci. “Not with me ... but I’m sensing something coming off of that planet ...”

“Well, of course you would.” Lotor replied in that condescending way of his. “You’re probably sensing other psychics.” He stood beside Allura’s podium with his arms crossed.

Lance shook his head again, still unable to look away from their destination. “No ... I-I mean yes, I’m getting that too, but this is different,” he took a step closer to the window, “something’s not right down there ...”

Coran raised a brow, but did as requested.

—

The Castle was well hidden in a dense forest. When they landed, Lotor insisted that they walk the rest of the way to the temple, and he would guide them.

Lance had to admit that the temple was _beautiful_. It reminded him of those large Hindu temples in India. Only this one had a lot of stained glass windows depicting different events—he even saw a stained glass picture of Voltron! The psychic Paladin had seen it on their way to the forest—and briefly in Lotor’s mind. There were three structures to the temple, but the middle, which Lance suspected was the main structure, was the tallest. 

The small town surrounding it had similar buildings. Each one—houses and shops—each looked like a miniature version of the temple.All in all, it looked very peaceful.

But something was off.

Where were the locals? The streets were bare. Come to think of it, there was also no sign of animal life in the forest either. It was too quiet; and quiet usually meant **trouble**.

“That’s strange ...” Lotor spoke as they entered the temple’s courtyard. 

“Yeah, is it just me or is it way too _quiet_ here?” Hunk said, looking around.

Ah, so it wasn’t just Lance. The others had noticed the silence too. “I told you something was wrong ...” 

Now Lance remembered this feeling. It was the dreadful sensation he had when he was ten—the one that foretold Papí’s demise.“Oh no ...”

Then suddenly, as of from out of nowhere, seven Galra soldiers appeared and attacked the team.

_“It’s definitely not you, Hunk!”_ Pidge yelled as she quickly moved to defend herself.

The Paladins moved with their bayards on the defensive. The Castle was too far away to go back for the Lions. They were caught so off guard that they almost did not have enough time to activate them.

Allura couldn’t even properly use her wipe because one soldier was too close to her. “What are they doing here?!” She yelled while still managing to defend herself. “I thought you said you kept this place a secret from them!”

Lotor was busy dodging attacks and blocking with his sword. “I did! I made sure there was no possible way they would have knowledge of this planet!” He retaliated. 

Lance knew he wouldn’t get a good shot with his gun, so he didn’t even try. But what was really strange was the way the soldier did not even try to really attack. 

“Something’s wrong!”

“Not now, Lance!” Shiro yelled as he continued to defend.

Now that Lance thought about it, none of the soldiers were actually fighting like ... well, _Galra_. These guys seemed a little sloppier and were not going in for the kill, like Galra usually do. But there was something else that Lance just couldn’t— **GASP!** Of course!

“Everyone stop fighting!” Lance yelled. No one listened to him. _Rude_. Well, if no one was going to listen, then he’ll just take measures into his own hands.

The Red Paladin ran through the courtyard. He was almost to the first step that led into the temple. Lance stopped and turned around to see everyone else still fighting. Well, if they wanted to waste their energy, that was fine.He would ju—

Lance turned around and made contact with something. He slowly looked up and what he saw made his stomach drop in fear.

**_Zarkon._ **

Freakin’ Zarkon stood in front of him, gazing down at Lance with his dead pupil-less eyes.

“Lance!”

“No way!”

“Impossible!”

Zarkon raises his arm, but Lance just stood there. The large, armored arm was about to swing down, but Lance still did not move.

That is, until Lotor tackled him out of the way, right before Zarkon’s mighty fist slammed into the ground, leaving a large plume of dirt in its wake.

Lance shoved the Galra Prince off of him. “What are you doing?!”

“Saving your life, you simpleton!” 

Lotor didn’t even give Lance a chance to contradict him. “Lotor, don’t!” He raced back towards Zarkon. 

Lance could hear Lotor’s thoughts of, _‘impossible’_ and _‘how.’_ The half-Galra was driven by blind fear, even if he didn’t know it.

His sword scraped loudly upon Zarkon’s armor, sparks flying everywhere. The lost look in Lotor’s eyes did not betray the fear that Lance felt coming off of him. “How is this possible? _I killed you!”_

**_“Death is not the end...”_** Zarkon ominously replied, in a slow, evil manner.

Lotor raised his sword again. This time, he was determined to cut Zarkon’s head off _COMPLETELY_. He jumped up to deliver the final blow, but something stopped him in mid-air. “What?” 

He looked back at Lance and saw the Paladin standing with his arm out, a glowing bluish-white energy emitting from his hand. Blood ran from his glowing, squinted eyes. “What are you doing?!”

“Stopping a pointless fight.” Lance moved his hand and Lotor was thrown back towards him.

Quickly recovering from the toss, the Galra Prince stood up, towering menacingly over Lance. “What is wrong with you, Paladin? If we do not kill them, they will kill us all!” There was still a small bit of panic under all the anger in Lotor’s tone. 

“No they won’t.” The deadpan look on the Red Paladin’s face and calm voice unnerved Lotor. 

Then suddenly, Lance took in a deep breath and raised both of his arms. When he did so, Zarkon and the soldiers were all levitating about ten feet into the air. The other Paladins watched as their enemies slowly continued to rise simultaneously. Lance then calmly exhaled and lowered his arms, but when he did the enemies dropped firmly to the ground.

This event caused the rest of the team to look at him. “Dude, what’s going on?” Hunk asked. 

Lance turned around to face them. Fresh blood dripped from his eyes. “None of this is real.” A course of confused thoughts headed his way. 

“What are you talking about?” Shiro asked. Lance could feel his irritation at not being able to clearly understand the situation. 

“I mean that all of these Galra are an illusion.” 

Pidge looked down at the soldier in front of her. She nudged it with her foot. “I don’t know, Lance. These guys seem pretty solid to me.”

“Yeah, I’ll admit it’s pretty good, but trust me; it’s not real.” He turned towards Zarkon’s form. “Even this Zarkon is fake.”

“How can you tell?” Lotor asked, with still a little bit of a cautious edge in his voice.

“Because none of them have auras.” Shiro, Allura, Pidge and Hunk all gazed at the soldiers in front of them, obviously not seeing what Lance saw. 

The young psychic walked up to the “fake” Zarkon. “All living things have auras—even Zarkon did. It was a really, really dark, midnight purple, almost black color. But this one,” he kicked the solid illusion, turning it over, “not even a _spark_ of an aura.”

Lance spoke so confidently that no one really knew what to say; so he moved on. “Okay, you made your point, you can drop the illusion now!” He yelled to the sky. His teammates looked around, wondering to whom he was talking. 

In the next tick, the bodies of the soldiers and Zarkon all disappeared. The local inhabitants appeared right after, going on with their day as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

“Whoa, this is getting creepy ...” Hunk muttered. Lance flinched. He wished that Hunk had not voiced that observation aloud, as he was desperately trying to ignore it.

“My, my, you certainly are a strong one.” A voice spoke. It wasn’t until he looked up at the entrance to the temple, did lance figure out that that voice wasn’t in his head (yeah, because he needed more of those ...) “Even our best seers have trouble seeing through my illusions. Very impressive.”

A small, pudgy figure stood at the temple’s entrance. Well, _“stood”_ may have been a bit strong. The dude was short. _Really_ short. Like shorter-than-Pidge short. He was probably only about a yard and a half high, if he stood up straight. But instead he was hunched over, making it difficult to determine his true height. His head was oddly shaped, and was completely bald. It looked like he had no ears and his eyes were closed, under a bushy unibrow. The nose had no visible nostrils and almost blended in with his doughy, yet wrinkly skin. A kind smile lit up his face. His arms were folded, hiding his hands in his robes, which were pretty much traditional monk’s clothes; the kind of clothing that Buddha is usually depicted with.

“Gruzko.” Lotor announced with a tired sigh, putting his sword away. Lance could feel the relief radiating from the Prince now that it was clear that there was no real threat. The rest of Team Voltron made their way to where Lance and Lotor stood in front of the temple. 

The small figure just continued to smile. “Hello, Lotor. It’s been awhile.”

Lotor nodded. “That, it has.”

Gruzko chuckled. “And you’ve brought friends with you.”

The Galra Prince cleared his throat. “Yes, allow me to introduce—“

“—The Paladins of Voltron. I have seen your exploits in visions. It’s very nice to finally meet you in person.”

The team was in awe at the small creature while Lotor seemed a bit disgruntled at being interrupted. Gruzko walked down the stairs and stood in front of the team, his robe covering his feet. It amazed them how this little creature could walk down the temple stairs when he did not open his eyes. Hunk waved his hand in front of Gruzko’s line of sight, but did not receive a reaction from him. He did, however, get a warning nudge from Shiro. 

“And this must be my new student: Lance Carlos Serrano-McClain. Born on Planet Earth on an island in the summer. Number five out of five. Aged seventeen revolutions old when you left Earth. Favorite food: garlic knots. Favorite pastime: surfing. Greatest fear: having friends and allies hurt or worse.

Wow. That was _A LOT_ of information. Lance felt uncomfortable, a little exposed. Like he was being laid out before everyone. It made him unconsciously blush and flinch at the same time. 

_“I thought your biggest fear was elevators—”_ Hunk whispered loudly to him. Lance forcefully shoved his elbow into his best friend’s side to shut him up. 

“Wow, that’s spot on!” Pidge said with a small smile on her face. “You seem to know a lot about Lance!” She smirked at her teammate, obviously enjoying his discomfort. 

If the smug look on her face didn’t make it obvious that this was payback for Lance’s much earlier outburst against her, the corresponding thought of, _‘quiznak you, Lance,’_ made it perfectly clear. The Red Paladin’s left eye twitched. Geez, _talk about holding a_ **grudge!**

Gruzko chuckled again and turned to face her. “You would be surprised at how much I know, _Caitlin Paige Holt._ Also born on Planet Earth, but in the spring! Number two out of two. Fifteen revolutions when you left Earth.” The smug smirk immediately dropped from Pidge’s face, to be replaced with a creeped-out look. Lance mentally laughed at her.

Shiro cleared his throat. He stepped next to Lance and put his arm around his shoulders. “Hello, sir. We were wondering if perhaps Lance could learn from you.”

Gruzko frowned at Shiro, who flinched, not expecting that reaction. The small, pudgy alien seemed uncomfortable around Voltron’s leader, and Lance couldn’t see into the the short alien’s mind as to why. 

Without answering, (most likely because he already knew why they were there without Shiro telling him) Gruzko moved his attention back to Lance and walked closer to him. The Red Paladin could feel the other psychic’s energy rummaging around in his head. It was uncomfortable! Man, is _this_ what everyone else on the other side felt?! _No wonder_ people hated it! But unlike them, Lance was conscious of it and could kick him out. He was just about to do so when he felt Gruzko pull out of his mind.

“Yes, your mind is very chaotic and quite loud, I might add.” He laughed. 

Lance rubbed the back of his head in nervousness. “Yeah, welcome to my world ...” Had Gruzko’s psychic inspection of him caused this headache, or did he have one before they met this guy?

“Hehe, it happens more than you would think, even with our own people. But I can see that you are different; powerful, yes.”

Lance raised a brow. “How can you—wait, are you looking at my aura?!” He slapped a hand to his face in realization. “Oh my—that _explains so much!”_

Gruzko nodded. “Yes, very good observation. My physical sight has long been lost to me. But my _true_ sight is as sharp as ever!”

“Wait so you’re blind?!” Hunk exclaimed.

“I am.”

“And you were able to create that illusion with such detail. And send out that sensation to Lance up in the Castle!” She clapped her hands together, like she had just been told the best kept secret ever. “You’re every bit as powerful as we have heard!” Allura commented with interest. Lance blushed at her underlining thought, _‘the perfect teacher for him!’_

Gruzko bowed—as much as he could.“Thank you, Princess. Now, let us go inside and talk more over snacks,” Gruzko said, turning to make his way back into the temple before yelling over his shoulder, “your Yellow Paladin is hungry.”

The team turned towards Hunk, whose stomach gurgled right on cue. “Oh, c’mon, like you weren’t expecting it by now!” 

—

Inside the temple, there were other Cyprocians like Gruzko, but they were regular size ... Well, regular size for them. The tallest that Lance had seen was just about Pidge’s height. They ranged from all ages, from toddler to the elderly—although, Gruzko seemed to be much, much older than any other. There were also a few other creatures from around the universe, as well. He saw an Olkari, a few Balmerans, and he swore he had spotted a small Galra or two. They all seemed to run perfectly together within the Cyprocian society. Lance figured that it was possible that the curse was not exactly limited to any one species. It was certainly something unexplained. 

“It’s not uncommon for us to find our gifts in those of other species,” Gruzko said as they passed a trio of Cyprocians meditating with a Taujeerian, who was practicing telekinesis. The Cyprocian leader then stopped and looked to Lance, “What _is_ uncommon is finding so many gifts in one outside of our species.” 

While Gruzko spoke in a tone that was supposed to encourage Lance, it did the direct opposite. It made him feel like the freak he thought he was. Why did it have to be him that suffered this curse? Why couldn’t it be some other poor sap that—

“—Ow!” Lance spat aloud, rubbing the back of his head after feeling a strange sensation. It felt like his brain had been struck with a small bit of static electricity. He looked down at Gruzko to see the disgruntled look on the pudgy alien’s face, and he realized what had happened. This guy had psychically pinched him! Like _seriously_ pinched _Lance’s brain_ with **his brain!** “That hurt!” He complained. 

“Then do not think such negative thoughts! What you have is a blessing!”

“A blessing? How is it a blessing when it’s only caused me agony?!”

Gruzko pointed a four-fingered hand at him. “That, is why you need to learn control. Once you learn how to control your gifts, you will be thankful for them.”

Lance folded his arms and pouted.

“Uh ... dude...?” 

He looked around him to see that Lotor and the rest of the team had no idea what had just occurred. Good, it was a little too embarrassing for him to explain. “Don’t ask ...” Lance mumbled as he went to follow his new mentor. 

—

The small alien opened a set of large double doors. It was dark on the other side, until Lance stepped into the room.

“Wow ...”

Before him was a large, glowing crystal. It looked the same as the Balmera crystals, but this one was _HUGE_! It reached the ceiling, which was at least four stories high. A blue glow radiated off of it in pulses. Lance could feel the energy buzzing within it. 

“Go on, touch it.” Gruzko urged. 

Without even thinking, Lance obeyed. He shakily placed his hand on the giant crystal. A calming energy washed over him. All of the emotions from others that he carried with him, all the thoughts, they just pretty much vanished from his mind. It felt like the foreign weight that Lance had been carrying with him for so long, was finally lifted off of him and he could finally breathe easily. 

Behind him, his teammates watched as Lance approached the stone. “Uh, does anyone else just see a plain, ordinary rock?” Pidge asked.

“Yes,”

“Yup,”

“I believe so,”

Pidge exhaled while she adjusted her glasses. “Okay, just making sure ...”

Allura tilted her head to the side. “Mm, I don’t know ... I feel a little bit of something ... I think the rock is supposed to be something special.” 

Meanwhile...

“How do you feel?” He heard Gruzko ask.

Lance’s eyes opened slowly. He had not even been aware that he had closed them. “I feel ... _good_.” A smile stretches on his face. “Like I’ve just had a long, refreshing shower.” His mind just felt so clear now. 

Gruzko nodded with a smile. “This is the Psi Stone. While it appears as an ordinary rock formation to those without our gifts, it restores those of us with them and clears out our minds.” He turned to Allura. “As an Altean alchemist, that was probably why you were able to sense the energy within it, Princess. However, unlike Lance, you wouldn’t be able to use the stone for revitalization.”

It made sense, seeing as how it was called the _Psi_ Stone, and not the _Alchemy_ Stone. Lance felt a very tiny spark of jealousy coming from Allura, but with his hand still in contact with the stone, it quickly faded.

“I figured you needed a clear head before we go diving into it, hehehe.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, two chapters in one week! As soon as u posted chapter 5, this one just seemed to flow!
> 
> Well, enjoy. I feel that we’ve reached at least the half-way point and I want the rest of it to be stellar. 
> 
> So I want to get some research in and that might take some time. Just a heads up.
> 
> Oh, and no one said anything about the new writing style! Please let me know what you think of it.


	7. Meditation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance learns the key to ESP (rhyme not intended).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sooooo ... Believe it or not, this chapter was SOOO much longer. But, I had to cut it down because I realized something was happening. 
> 
> I was having trouble thinking of where this chapter should end, but I kept writing. As I did, the story came to a fork-in-the-road, metaphorically speaking. 
> 
> I had had the ending to this story all planned out, but as I continued to write, an idea seemed to pop into my head that I had not considered before. 
> 
> The problem is, this new idea was SO GOOD that I couldn’t just ignore it. But it took the story along a different path. That being said, if I go with the original ending idea, the story is finished. This new idea brings along the POSSIBILITY of this story moving into a series. 
> 
> So, I’m having a bit of a conundrum on if I wanna do that. I would like some advice on it, but I don’t want to give too much away. 
> 
> So, if you’re interested in helping me out, let me know!
> 
> Any-hoozy-watsits, hopefully this chapter isn’t too boring. It’s quite a bit of dialogue, with a (small) bit of action thrown in.

Lance and Gruzko sat in a small, round room filled with mats and pillows. The mid-day double-sun cast a golden light through the windows. It was serene and reminded Lance of Sunday dinners at home. 

The rest of the team was in another room, but Lance could feel them watching him through the two-way mirror that hung on the wall. Don’t ask him how he knew, it was one of those psychic things. Plus, _hello!_ Why else have a two-way mirror if not for spying?

Gruzko had insisted that doing this without the others around would be less stressful, but knowing they were watching made no more difference to Lance than having them there in the room with him.

“Okay, let’s try this again. This time, I want you to concentrate only on your task. Levitate the vase and then put it back down.”

Lance took a deep breath. He had been trying to lift this vase for what felt like hours now! The first time Lance tried to lift it, using his telekinesis, it had shattered in pieces. Gruzko used his own telekinetic power to put it back together—he even got them to merge into one piece once again, which was kinda cool and kinda freaked Lance out at the same time. The second time, Lance somehow missed completely and a pillow came flying at his face. At that action, he could hear Pidge cackling, not only out loud, but telepathically too. _Mean_. This wasn’t as easy as it looked on TV, you know!

He had so much blood on his face that he had stopped wiping if off for fear that he was rubbing the skin raw. His eyeballs actually hurt more than his head did at this point. This was like psychic bootcamp--and he's been to bootcamp, so he knows what that's like.

“Can’t I take a break?” Lance obnoxiously whined. 

“You can take a break when you actually do something.”

Lance grimaced. That sounded so _Keith_ that Gruzko many as well have been channeling him. ... Oh boy, that was **horrifying** to think about. 

Reaching forward, Lance focused on the vase. It wasn’t even a really big vase—probably weighing five pounds and only a foot-and-a-half tall; so he couldn’t understand why he was having such a hard time with this. 

“You’re having a hard time because you’re not focusing completely on the vase!”

“Yeah, well that’s not helping!”

“You need to center your focus on one thing. But your mind keeps wandering to different things.”

“I can’t help it!”

Then suddenly, the vase went flying to the window but it stopped just before it hit. Lance noticed Gruzko’s outstretched arm. The short alien was, once again, cleaning up Lance’s mess. 

“You are very distracted; even with your mind cleared out you are still thinking of different things.”

Lance jumped to his feet in frustration.“I can’t help that I have a stressful job!” He folded his arms and pouted like a three-year-old. 

The Red Paladin expected Gruzko to retaliate, but all the small, elderly alien did was tilt his head with a “hmm” sound. With his eyes perpetually closed—as well as his mind—it was hard to tell what Gruzko was thinking. 

“Perhaps we should approach this from a different angle. We need to calm your mind down before anything else.”

Lance shrugged. “Great,” he loudly dropped his arms to his side, “how do we do that?”

Gruzko tilted his head forward a bit, gesturing to the spot before him on a small rug. Lance let out a loud, exasperated groan as he sat back down. “The key to a calm mind is meditation.”

Lance tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Meditation? That’s it?” Dang, if he had known it was that simple, he would have done it a long time ago!

Gruzko chuckled. “Oh, there’s much more to it than that, my student.”

“ _Uuuugghh_ , of course there is ...” Lance took in another deep breath and closed his eyes. 

“Now, first thing is to clear out all the chaotic thoughts.”

Lance grimaced, eyes still closed. Seriously? Wasn’t that why Gruzko took him to the Psi Stone first? How could his mind get any clearer?

“Well, your mind would become clearer if you would _stop resisting my teachings!”_

Lance opened his eyes and cringed. “I’m not resist— **WHOA**!”

When had he started to levitate?! He rubbed his lower back; it hurt after falling from three feet in the air. “Ow ...” Lance heard Gruzko sigh. 

“You seem to be full of distractions, yet there is no one here but us.”

The psychic Paladin frowned. “Yeah, well my friends watching me fail through a two-way-mirror is pretty distracting.”

“You’re going to have to conquer that flaw. I know that sounds and thoughts can be noisy, but you will rarely be in situations that are entirely distraction-free.” 

Lance sat up and closed his eyes again. He tried to block everything out—really, he did—but there was just too much going on. He could hear the thoughts of not only his teammates on the other side of that two-way mirror, but also thoughts of the locals,

‘ _Outsiders_ ’

‘ _Humans_ ’

‘ _Voltron_ ’

‘ _Distraction_ ’

He also felt the distrust and nosiness of the locals. His head was filling with too much again! He could also feel a few telepaths trying to work their way into his head, but the Red Paladin had been continuously kicking them out. _Lance couldn’t take it anymore!_

“ _ **AAAAHH!!!**_ ” 

There was a loud crash. Lance opened his eyes to see a giant mess around the room. The pillows were ripped apart. Vases were broken and shattered all over the floor. There were even cracks in the windows. All in all, it looked like a hurricane hit the room. Yeah, _Hurricane Lance_.

This was all his doing; it had Lance’s signature, “mess-up” written all over it. Plus, he could feel the blood on his face. Oh, and he was also levitating again. Oops, not anymore. “Ow!” Lance could feel Gruzko’s disappointment without even looking at him. He should have been used to his teachers’ disappointment with him by now, but this particular disappointment somehow hurt more than any other; and he knew that Gruzko could feel his shame, which just made the whole situation that much worse. 

Suddenly, the team—well, Hunk and Pidge—ran into the room.  “Dude, are you okay?!” Hunk exclaimed. He was genuinely worried about Lance. Pidge, on the other hand, had a different feeling wafting off of her entirely. 

“ _THAT WAS SO COOL!!!_ The way you were levitating in midair with a tornado of objects around you—oh, oh—and the way your eyes were glowing that weird glow again!” She was practically swooning and was becoming animated with her explanation of what had happened, gesturing wildly with her arms. “It was like a movie come to life!” How could she say that with a smile on her face?! This whole experience was terrifying! Well, at least _someone_ was getting a kick out of this.

“Lance, you need to calm down.” Gruzko warned. Easy for him to say, he’s not being emotionally assaulted—or maybe he was and was just really good at hiding it. 

Lance rubbed his head. There was too much going on again. He felt a warm hand in his shoulder. 

“Buddy, are—“

At the physical touch, Lance had finally snapped. He wrenched his shoulder out of Hunk’s grasp “No, I’m not okay!” He stood up and walked a few paces away from his two best friends. “Nothing is okay! There’s too much going on! I can’t concentrate! I’m so overwhelmed and _it’s too much!!_ ”

Hunk and Pidge just stood there, staring at Lance as he went on his little tantrum. The Red Paladin saw his teammates’ golden-yellow and spring-green auras flare up, and were spreading to him the way auras tended to do when Lance was about to absorb emotions. Oh no, _not again ..._

The psychic Paladin flinched, trying to prepare himself, but it never came. He cracked an eye open to see that the auras had stopped moving; they didn’t even dance like flames, like auras usually do. They were just frozen. “What the...?”

The spreading of the auras had dissipated. Then a calming feeling came over the room. He watched as both Hunk and Pidge took a breathe and visibly became more relaxed, which made Lance relax as well. He looked towards Gruzko to see him with his small four-fingered hand calmly raised towards his friends. “Wow ...” Lance whispered as he watched Gruzko calm the worrying emotions that Lance was just about to absorb. 

“Paladins, perhaps you should go back to the other room. I need to talk to Lance alone, please.”

Hunk blinked while Pidge shook her head a little bit, both trying to snap themselves out of some kind of trance. 

“Uh, yeah ... sure ...”

“We’ll just be ... with everyone else ...” Then the two left. 

Lance’s awe moved to Gruzko’s form. “Did you just manipulate their emotions?” 

The Cyprocian leader smiled. “I simply calmed them down so that you would not absorb anything else you don’t need.”

Lance slumped, cradling his head in his hands. “This is hopeless... maybe I’m just not supposed to learn control ... maybe ...” he looked away from Gruzko, knowing that the he already knew what Lance was truly thinking.

“Don’t let yourself wander down that path, my student,” Lance looked to him with sad, bloody eyes, “I’m afraid not many come back from it.”

Lance wiped some of the blood from his face, feeling it dripping off of his chin. “Yeah, I know. It already took my dad ...”

“And that is where I think the problem lies.” Lance looked at him with a raised brow. “You carry your father’s fate around with you.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Well, of course I carry it around,” he raised his arms, gesturing around him, “it’s what started this whole mess!”

“No, it is what unlocked them. But you fear your abilities because you believe that they brought about his demise.”

“Well, didn’t it?” 

Lance noted how funny it was, that when Gruzko shook his head his entire figure shook with it. “Not entirely. Your father did not understand what he could do. He feared his abilities, much like you.” _Duh_ , Lance kinda figured that out when he saw Papí hanging from the ceiling fan. “Those without strong wills usually die early, and often by their own hands.”

Lance cringed. The scattered vase shards began to tremble when he did so. He _really_ didn’t want to talk about this right now. 

“You fear your abilities because you don’t want to suffer your father’s fate. That is understandable..” Gruzko took a step closer to Lance, bending over (just a little) to be eye level with him. “But it also, my student, means that you have a strong will.”

Lance raises a brow. “So my fear is what gives me a strong will?” Lance questioned, generally confused.

Gruzko smiled. “Both yes and no.” It never felt right when his own words came back to bite him in the ass—especially coming from someone who wasn’t even present when he said it! “Your passion for helping people is what makes your will strong, it keeps you from going down your father’s path. Very fitting for a Paladin of Voltron.”

Huh, interesting point. So being a Paladin is what keeps him from being suicidal? Lance unconsciously shook his head. Yeah no, that didn’t sound right ...

“But when it comes to your abilities, your fear is also like a roadblock, it’s hindering your potential to reach control and higher states of mind.”

Ah okay, there it was. Long story short, the fear keeps him away from sharp objects, but it also keeps him from exploring his abilities. Makes sense ... a bit.

“My job, as your mentor, is to help you find a balance, a way to keep that passion going, but to help you better understand your abilities without having them rule your life.”

Oh man, Lance felt like such a _Negative Nancy_. This small, elderly alien was being so patient with Lance, and all he was doing in return was giving him attitude because, trying to clear out his head was always frustrating. 

Sighing, Lance sat back up, crossing his legs. “Okay, I’ll try harder.”

“Good. Let’s try again.” Once again, Lance closed his eyes. “Focus on your breathing.

Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.” Lance did just that. He inhaled deep, then held it for approximately three seconds before slowly letting it out. “Good, keep breathing like that.”

In, one-two-three, _one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand_ , out, one-two-three. Lance repeated that breathing cycle a few times. Somewhere around the sixth _two-one-thousand_ , he felt himself start to relax, which caused him to slowly levitate off the floor again. Counting the three seconds between inhaling and exhaling seemed to keep his mind focused, yet it relaxed him at the same time.

“Very good, Lance. Now, open your mind. In other words, free yourself from unnecessary thoughts. Nothing else matters but the here and now.”

That part was more difficult, seeing as how his job is pretty stressful. There was a lot to think about. ‘ _Focus on the here and now,_ ’ he told himself. Right now he was breathing; so that’s what he focused on. He almost slipped, being distracted by hearing thoughts again.

“Make yourself a mantra. Hearing your physical voice should help filter out some of the mental noise that you hear.”

Wait, come up with a mantra all on his own? What should it be? It had to be something simple, something he could remember. Only one thing came to mind.

“ _She sells seashells by the seashore,_ ” he whispered quietly. Lance mentally slapped himself.  Oh, for the love of the stars, that was _so lame!_ But it seemed to work. His awareness was sharp even though he was relaxed. He was able to block out hearing anything but his own voice. Lance kept repeating his mantra. 

At that moment, everything began to fall into place. He was able to filter through the noise and push away others’ thoughts from his mind while filing through his own thoughts. With his eyes still closed, his mind organized and his body relaxed, Lance held out his hand. He focused on the vase and willed it to lift. The vase easily and smoothly floated off of the floor.

“Well done.”

The praise felt good. Maybe he was finally getting the hang of this. Lance set the vase back down in the spot where it had previously been. He slowly opened his eyes and a trail of blood trickled down his cheek. 

Gruzko nodded with a smile. “Now you may take a break. “

 

* * *

 

The team took a break in one of the many gardens. Many of the temple occupants gathered there to eat. Even though they were outdoors, the dining tables were reminiscent of Japanese dining sets. They were low and instead of chairs, everyone sat on pillows. 

“Dude, that was awesome! I’m so proud of you, man!” Hunk exclaimed, slapping Lance on the shoulder as he held a green food that looked like a chicken leg. As much as that slap hurt, hearing Hunk’s words comforted him. 

Pidge shrugged. “Yeah, but still not as good as when you went ballistic and made an in-door tornado.” She sipped on some kind of blue soup. 

“Well, Pidge may have liked that, but I was just about ready to bust into that room to snap you out of it, had Hunk not beaten me to it.” Shiro replied. 

Lance smiled. It was nice to know that his friends had his back on this whole thing. “Thanks, guys. This is probably the clearest my head has been in a long time.” Pidge opened her mouth to reply with a snide comment—something about not much goes on in his head anyway or whatever—but Lance quickly used his telekinesis to move her spoon from her hand back into her mouth. This got a laugh out of Shiro and Hunk. Pidge flipped him the bird with deadpan look on her face. 

Allura clapped her hands. “You’re getting good at that.” 

Lance blushed, rubbing the back of his head nervously. “Thanks.” It was nice to have a clear head. He took in a deep breath, finally able to take in the beauty of the environment. 

This really was a beautiful planet. There were exotic flowers everywhere one looked. Lance spotted a gardener hovering over a plant bed with their eyes closed. A quick look into their mind told Lance that they were telepathically communicating with the plants. Unfortunately Lance was caught and wasbooted out of the gardener’s mind with a curse. Well, it was nice to learn that “quiznak you” was a universal insult. 

Pidge brought Lance’s attention back to the group. She had put down the spoon so that Lance couldn’t use it against her again. “Maybe Gruzko can help you figure out what the whole bleeding eyes thing is all about.”

“That is the next goal.”

_**“WAAAHHH!”** _

Shiro, Pidge, Hunk and Allura all jumped and screamed out loud at hearing Gruzko’s voice. Lance didn’t react at all since he already knew the small Cyptocian was there. What could he say, Sometimes the curse came in handy. Lance cackled loudly at their reaction.

Gruzko stood behind his newest student, which just added to the creep-factor that came over the other four Paladins. “Apologies. It was not my intention to scare you,"

"Naw, it's okay ..." Hunk panted with a hand over his chest. He leaned on Lance's shoulder, "I've been meaning to boost my heart rate ..."

Gruzko chuckled that old man chuckle of his. "Well, I came because it is time for Lance to stop bleeding from his eyes.”

Calmly, Lance turned around to face his mentor. “You mean there’s a way to stop that?”

Gruzko nodded. “Yes, but this will take serious mental strength if you are to conquer this attribute.”

Lance raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“We will get started as soon as you finish with your meal.”

 Hunk relaxed against Lance's shoulder. “Oh, thank goodness! I was worried you were gonna pull us away from this delicious food!”

The Red Paladin rolled his eyes. “Buddy, you’re not the one that has to take the test, here. You can take it with you.”

Hunk looked at Lance while inhaling quite the long serving of noodles. “Oh, right.”

 

* * *

 

Once again, Lance sat in the middle of that room with Gruzko in front of him. Somehow, the room had cleaned itself of the mess Lance had left earlier. Frankly, he didn’t want to know how that happened. The Red Paladin had begged his mentor to let his friends enter the room too, now that he knew how to filter through others’ thoughts and emotions, but Gruzko insisted that they would only take Lance’s (“ _already limited,_ ” as he so elegantly put it) concentration away from his goal. 

“The reason your eyes bleed when you use your gifts is because there is something inside your mind that blocks you from reaching your potential.”

Lance thought for a second. “...Mmmy fear again?” Because this sounded like the “fear is bad and good” speech from before. 

Gruzko shook his head. “I’m afraid not, my student. This is something on more of a subconscious level.” Of course. Nothing was ever easy for Lance. He was essentially a walking poster for _Murphy’s Law_. 

The Red Paladin groaned and visibly hunched over a bit. “Oh great, so we gotta go looking for this block thing?”

“Well, sort of. The quickest way to counter act this is by opening your Third Eye. 

Lance’s physical eyes widened. He had heard of something like the “Third Eye” before, but he had never really given it much thought, let alone associated it with his powers. But he supposed it made sense. “Okay, so how are we gonna do this?” 

“This time, I want you to enter a deep meditative state.”

Hearing Gruzko's game plan sent chills down the psychic Paladin's spine. Maybe Gruzko was expecting too much from him too soon? Because this sounded like some "next level" stuff, and judging by the fact that this was _technically_ still Lance's first lesson, he was a bit hesitant to even try to enter a deeper meditative state. “Uh ... quick question: how will I know that I’ve achieved that?”

Gruzko let out a small chuckle, which was kinda like hearing an old witch’s laugh, it sounded creepy and sent chills down Lance’s spine. “You will know when you do.”

The Red Paladin frowned. That was Gruzko being his _cryptic self_ , again. “Well, that’s not helpful at all ...” 

Gruzko leaned forward and patted Lance on the knee. “Not to worry. I will guide you through it.”

Lance let out a sigh. There was no way around it, so he might as well cooperate. “Okay.” He closed his eyes and began his meditation. 

“S _he sells seashells by the seashore..._ ” He kept repeating the mantra a few times. Gruzko had been right about one thing, Lance knew when he reached a deep, meditative state. He felt weightless and knew that his physical body relaxed as it levitated off the floor again. 

This might be a good time to open his eyes, so that’s what he did. Hmm, okay; things just continue to get creepier and creepier. Apparently he woke up surrounded by absolutely nothing but white. There were no walls, no floor and no ceiling; just an endless expanse of white. However, he could hear faint, little whispers. They were so quiet and there were so many of them that he could not make out what they were saying. 

Lance gave a small shrug. “Well, I guess it’s better than the alternative: endless darkness,” his voice echoed in the abyss of nothingness. 

“Or a higher plane of existence.” 

Lance let out a loud, girly shriek and practically jumped a good foot in the air. It was a good thing Keith wasn’t there, otherwise Lance would never have lived that down. 

“You make the same noises as your friends.”

Wow hello, Karma; she and Lance seemed to be on a first-name basis lately, didn't they? “Well, yeah when someone jumps up out of no where, one tends to scream!”

“Heheh no need to get hasty, my student.” Gruzko began walking in some unknown direction. “After all, you wouldn’t want to fall out of this state and start all over again, would you?”

“If it means not having a spiritual heart attack, than maybe.” He snarkingly replied, trailing behind. 

 

* * *

 

Back in the physical world, the Paladins and Lotor watched quietly as Lance levitated steadily in the air with his eyes closed. So far, it looked like all he was doing was meditating. It was eerily quiet.

“What do you think is happening in there?” Hunk asked. 

Pidge casually shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m hoping for another show.”

Shiro nudged her roughly in warning. “Pidge! That’s like saying you hope he never learns how to control his powers!”

The smallest Paladin smiled and gave another shrug. “Half if me does, and the other half finds his freak outs entertaining.” Shiro just rolled his eyes in response. 

“Not to worry,” Lotor piped up, “if anyone can teach the Red Paladin control over his abilities, it is Gruzko.”

Pidge turned to him with a raised brow and one squinted eye, indicating suspicion. “You seem to have a surprising amount of trust in him.” 

Lotor nodded. “Of course, I have seen what what he can do, myself.” He looked back through the glass at the elderly Cyprocian. “Believe me when I say that you have not even begun to experience how powerful Gruzko is.”

Allura sighed. “Just speculating here, but do you realize how much of an asset Lance would be to the Voltron Coalition with his powers?” 

Four sets of eyes snapped widely to Allura in unison. 

“He’s already an asset to Voltron!” Hunk yelled. His expression turned to anger. “You make it sound like he has nothing else to offer!”

Allura backed up with her hands in front of her in surrender. “N-no, that’s not what I meant,”

“Then what did you mean, Allura?” Shiro asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible. 

“I simply meant that we would have an advantage over the Galra on a different level. Something that they wouldn’t expect.”

The others just continued to look at her, not arguing, but not really believing the excuse either. 

“Hmm, you may have a point there, Allura.” Lotor said. Team Voltron looked at him. 

“She does?”

Lotor nodded. “Yes. Think of Haggar. You finally have someone that could fight her on her own level.”

Shiro squinted in thought. “I’m not sure even Lance could become that powerful.”

Lotor shook his head. “You underestimate him. While you were all eating, Gruzko mentioned to me that the Red Paladin possesses one of the strongest minds that he has ever encountered.”

Jaws dropped at that. **_“LANCE?!?!”_**

As well-kept as ever, Lotor didn't even flinch at the volume of their exclamation. “Yes, that was exactly my reaction," the Galra Prince studied the boy on the other side of the glass, "but Gruzko assured me that the boy has an untold amount of power in him, just waiting to be unlocked.”

The team turned back to watching Lance, who had not moved at all. 

 

* * *

 

They walked for a little while in silence. After being in space for so long, time wasn’t something that Lance put too much reliance in anymore; at least, not time like _he_ understood it, so he didn’t know how long they walked, but it didn’t feel like very long. 

“Where are we going?” Lance asked, looking around in different directions to see if he could spot anything, but all he could see was white. It was only after he spoke, did he realize how dumb of a question that was. With nothing but white all around, they may not have been going anywhere at all, and Gruzko was just buying time for some reason. Lance wouldn’t put it past him. 

“Well, that really depends on you.”

Lance could almost hear the screech his boots made with the nonexistent floor as he abruptly came to halt. His eyes immediately snapped back to Gruzko **“HUH?!”**

The Cyprocian shrugged. “Well, this is the inside of your mind, after all.”

“WHAT?! We’re inside _my mind?!?!”_

“Yes. Where else would you expect your Third Eye to be?” The elderly Cyprocian shrugged, as if it was no big deal. Hey, maybe this guy was used to ascending to places like this, but this was Lance's first time; so excuse him if he was a little freaked out right now!

Roping in his shock, the Red Paladin took a good look around. “Are you sure this is _my_ mind? Shouldn’t it be, I don’t know, he twirled his index fingers around each other, " ... messier?”

“With the meditation, your mind is able to clean itself out and think clearly now.”

Lance glanced around at the nothingness again. “If Pidge were here, she’d have a field day to know she was right ...”

“Well, then it’s a good thing she’s not here.”

Lance sighed and placed a hand on his hip, leaning on his back leg. “Gruzko, why did you bring me here?”

“I brought you here so that you could open your Third Eye, just like I said.”

“Okay, where is it?” Lance looked around again, still seeing nothing but white. 

“It’s in there.” Gruzko pointed to a structure that looked like a funhouse. 

You know, one of those houses they have at carnivals. It stood out in the excess white, with its dark, desaturated colors and clown theme. It was even distorted, the way he had seen in cartoons when he was little. Lance stared at it with a dropped jaw. Okay, that had **NOT** been there a moment ago—and, come to think of it, he didn’t like that Gruzko could manipulate his mindscape so easily; that was some _major_ Prof. X stuff that he was not ready to tackle yet. 

“Somewhere inside is the obstacle blocking your Third Eye.

Lance slumped. “Please tell me I can just go in and get out in one fell swoop ...” He whined.

“I’m afraid not. You must face the obstacle head-on. It must be vanquished or else you will never be able to open your Third Eye.”

Yeah, that’s what he thought ...  There were so many thoughts running through Lance’s head—no pun intended. The funhouse was dark, and looked to be made up of some the things that made Lance uncomfortable the most, starting with the fact that it was a funhouse—he hated those!

There was a large, scary clown painted in the door—another thing he feared, courtesy of his siblings—almost like it was welcoming him into the horror that awaited him. 

The Paladin gulped. This was so scary that he almost preferred to go head-to-head in battle with Zarkon himself, again. “I’m going to face some of my worst fears and memories, aren’t I?”

“Most likely.”

“This is what I get for wanting a vacation ...” the psychic mumbled to himself with a sigh as he made his way towards the funhouse. 

About half way to his destination, he found that he was alone. “Aren’t you coming?” He yelled back to the small alien that had not moved from his spot. 

Gruzko shook his head, this time there was no "all knowing" smile on his face. He almost seemed, apologetic. Lance didn't know if it was because they were in his own mind right now or what, but ever since they arrived, he had been having a hard time using any form of his ESP. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a small vacation for him. “I’m sorry, Lance. These journeys need to be taken alone.”

Oh, _hell no!_  He wouldn't just up and leave Lance on his own like that, would he?! Especially before entering a creepy funhouse?! “You said that you’d guide me!” panic slipping into Lance's tone. 

“I said I would guide you into a meditative state. I never said anything about aiding you with your task.” 

Well, wasn’t that shady?

"But-b-b-bu-bu-but-bu-b-but--"

“I have faith in you, my student!” Gruzko faded out of existence after that. 

Lance groaned. “This had better be worth it ...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think he's going to find in the funhouse? This is where the story reaches that fork-in-the-road I mentioned earlier. Tell me what you think!


	8. The Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance comes in contact with something made by the curse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sooooo. Here's the long awaited--hehe, I know it hasn't been THAT long--chapter 8. I went with my new idea, and I tried to spin it into a way that can segway into the original idea. However, I think it came out a bit rushed. I don't know, I'll let you be the judge. 
> 
> Anyway, sections in Italics are parts of memories. I didn't separate them as separate scenes because there are some parts in the memories that are in "real-time." I hope it's clear. When I think of stories like this, I think of them in storyboard form (because I'm a storyboard artist), which can be a bit difficult to transfer into written form.
> 
> One more note before you read: One of my favorite shows on TV is The Dead Files; so I took some ideas from that. Those of you that are also fans of that show will know what I'm talking about when you see it. 
> 
> Thanks again!

Lance’s hand hovered over the door handle. The face of that clown unnerved him immensely. 

“Okay, Lance you’re going to have to get past all these stupid fears ...” he told himself,” he could practically hear that clown laughing at him, making him cower in on himself, “if it were that easy you wouldn’t be afraid of them in the first place!

After a momentary freak out, his own hand slapped him upside the face. “Get ahold of yourself, Lance. You’re a Paladin of Voltron. You laugh in the face of danger!” He threw his head back with a loud, cocky laugh and his hands on his hips. “Hahahahaha!” Yeah, because the fake bravado always works for him. 

Slowly, he opened the creepy double-doors and winced at the wave of negative energy that hit him. It was almost painful and made him a bit nauseous. 

The inside of the funhouse was just as horrifying as he was expecting. There was a hall of doors, to his right, what looked like a maze of mirrors—that looked like they were trying to keep Lance’s deepest fears caged, like hungry animals, inside them—to his left, and there were other shadow creatures crawling all over the walls. This place have the phrase, “sum of all fears” a whole new meaning. 

“And then danger laughed right back and said, _“hey, let’s have some fun with ‘im ...”_ Lance said to himself. 

He took one hesitant step into the funhouse. A scuttering shadow creature hissed at him as it passed by. He screamed a loud scream that would have embarrassed him if his friends were around. Yeah, nope! No way! He couldn’t do this! The Red Paladin turned back around to the exit, but it was gone. Great, there was no going back now—quite literally. 

Whimpering like a child wanting his mommy (because he _did_ want his mommy at that moment), Lance decided to throw caution to the wind and just get this whole thing over with. 

After glancing at the Maze of Mirrors and seeing dark shadow entities about to break through the glass, he made the obvious decision to _not_ go there and took his chances with the Hall of Doors. 

Yes, the long, long, _LONG_ Hall of Doors. Funny, it hadn’t seemed this long from the entrance. Some doors were open and were replaying his childhood memories as he passed, playing them like movies. His eye caught on a specific memory. 

The memory was of the day he left home for his first year at the Galaxy Garrison. In it, he and Veronica, who had already been a student at the school, were saying goodbye to their family at the airport. 

_ Mamá enveloped him in a big hug. He would miss her hugs (_ oh, you have **no idea** , kid) _. “Do you have your medicine?” _

_ Young Lance groaned. “Yes, Mamá.” _

_ “You need to take one everyday for it to stay in effect.” _

_ “I know.” _

_ She moved to whisper in his ear. “And remember, Mijó,” she began. Lance already knew what she was going to say, even with the medicine blocking out that curse, but he didn’t interrupt—he knew better than that, “No le cuentes a nadie tu maldición.”*_

_ Young Lance winced. He was nearly drowning in her worry. “I won’t. Stop worrying; I’ll be fine.” _

_ His mother lovingly caressed his face. “If I didn’t worry, I wouldn’t be doing my job.” That earned a small laugh out of him.  _

Lance smiled fondly at the memory. Those were simpler times. Thinking on it, the smile fell from his face as a deep sadness began to fill him. “Lo siento, no pude cumplir mi promesa, Mamá ...”**

Would she be proud of him for doing something like this? Or would she condemn him? Lance never wanted to admit it, but ever since that fight he had with Marco, he could feel a very slight bit of fear coming from his mother. He couldn’t figure out if that fear was _for_ him or _of_ him. Maybe both. It hurt to think that she feared him. 

Slamming the door shut, Lance decided that he had had enough of that memory, and it was time to move on. He only made it a few paces before opening another random door, immediately dreading what would be waiting for him on the other side. This one held a more recent memory. 

_“Coran!” Lance dove on top of Coran to shield the Altean from the blast of a bomb that had been disguised as Pidge’s little pet robot, Rover._

He could almost still feel the heat of that blast as he watched that memory. Unconsciously, he rubbed the back of his neck, where he had a lot of scars left over from that incident. Shuddering a little, Lance closed the door calmly. 

He picked another door at random. 

On the other side of this one, a much earlier memory played before him. In it, nine-year-old Lance and Rachel were sneaking out of school to have a “twins day” at the beach. They had been planning it that whole week, even wearing their swimming suits under their clothes that day. 

Thinking about how close he and Rachel used to be when they were kids brought a warm, fuzzy feeling to Lance’s chest.He remembered this day fondly. He probably missed his twin the most—you know, right after Mamá, of course.

_ “Be quiet, you’re gonna get us caught!” _

_ “You’re the one doing all the talking!” _

_ “Shh! Just follow me and be quiet!” _

_ Young Lance folded his arms and pouted. “Why do I have to follow you? This was my idea!” _

_ Rachel turned to look at her twin brother after making sure the coast was clear. “Because I know how to get us out of here without getting caught.”  _

She spoke with such vain confidence that it made Lance uncomfortable. This must be what the team felt when they saw him put on the same act. Okay, okay, he got the point. 

_ After the office secretary sat back down at her desk, Rachel saw their opportunity “C’mon,” She whispered.  _

_ The twins crouched down and crawled their way past the school office. Phase One complete; they made it past the office. Now all they had to do was cross the hall. Rachel looked both ways before deeming the coast clear. She was about to tell Lance to make a break for it, but then a teacher— _ whom, for the life of him, Lance couldn’t remember the name of _ —emerged from the bathroom. Unfortunately for them, the teacher caught movement out of the corner of his eye. So much for getting out without being caught.  _

_ “What do you two think you’re doing?” The teacher asked, eyeing the twins. _

_ Uh-oh, this probably wouldn’t end well for them. Lance was just about to admit defeat when his sister beat him to the punchline. “Please, Sir, my brother lost his pet frog on our way to school this morning and we were going to go look for it.  _

_ “Pet frog?” The teacher asked with a raised brow.  _

_ “Pet frog?” Lance parroted the teacher, looking at Rachel. She stomped on his foot, never looking away from the teacher. “Ow! O-oh yeah ... ! My pet ... frog ...” Lance said, straining his voice to hide his pain. He didn’t succeed.  _

_ The teacher glanced between each twin with skepticism.  _

_ “Yes, my stupid brother brought his pet frog to show-and-tell today, and the poor thing hopped away!” She was being dramatic, complete with a sad face and crocodile tears.  _

_ “Well, if it hopped away—“ _

_ “You don’t understand, Sir!” She shrieked, causing both the teacher and Lance to flinch. “My brother LOVES that frog! He can’t live without it!” _

_ The teacher raised a brow, clearly contemplating whether he believed the girl or not. “Is this true?” He asked Lance.  _

_ The younger twin glanced at his sister.  _ ‘Play along.’  _ He heard her voice, but her lips weren’t moving... weird. The boy then let out a long, loud sob, practically startling the teacher. “Yes! It’s true! My poor little Hoppy!” Yikes! Talk about totally uncreative. He was obviously over acting—which was what Lance thrived on. “He’s out there all alone! He must be SO SCARED!!” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rachel roll her own.  _

_ “You see? He’s a wreck! We need to go find Hoppy, please!” The female twin pleaded, using big, watery puppy-dog eyes.  _

_ The teacher scratched his head in confusion. Uh-oh, they were losing him. Lance thought fast. He started sobbing even louder, pretty much causing a scene. Other teachers were poking their heads out of their classrooms to see what all the fuss was about.  _

_ At this point, the teacher had just about had enough of them. “Oh, just go look for it, already!” He waved them off before quickly walking away.  _

_ Wow. Lance couldn’t believe that worked. The twins looked at each other before high-fiving. They then ran out of the school and headed to the beach.  _

_ The scenery in the memory changed to the beach, Lance’s favorite place on Planet Earth. _

_ “What should we do first?” Lance asked.  _

_ “Race you to the water!” _

_ “You’re on!” Rachel shoved him into the sand, then ran ahead with a giggle. “Hey, that’s cheating!” He quickly got up and ran after his sister.  _

_ They were just about to reach the water when a loud voice stopped them in their tracks. “Lance Carlos and Rachel Elena! **You two are in SO much trouble!** ” _

_ “Uh oh ...” the twins muttered with a flinch.  _

_ They turned around to see Papí standing in the sand with his hands on his hips. The man leered at them with the most angry look they had ever seen, and—was Lance imagining it, or was there blood running out of Papí’s eyes. _

_ “You two better have a good explanation for this!” _

_ Neither twin said a word, both too shocked to see him there. How had he known? They had taken extra care to make sure no one but the two of them knew about their beach plans.  _

Lance grimaced at the memory. _Now_ he knew how Papí had known about their scheme to skip school for the beach. Come to think of it, he had probably known for a while and had been waiting to catch them in the act before saying anything about it. 

It made Lance bitter to think about. Not only was he still miffed about the two weeks of hard after-school farm labor that they had been punished to, but he was also still hurt by the fact that the man left him alone with a curse. 

Stepping away from the door, Lance steadied himself. He felt like crying. Whether it be from sadness or anger, he didn’t know. How could Papí do that to him? Sure, it was hard on the whole family, but Lance was the one stuck with the curse. 

_ “Just get lost, Lance.” _

Said psychic looked up at hearing his name. “Huh?” Who said that? It sounded like Pidge. 

_“Oh, c’mon, Pidge let me help!”_ Okay, that was his own voice, but it was not coming from him. 

Lance looked around. 

_“Why would you want to help? You don’t know anything about mechanics.”_ It was Pidge’s voice again. 

It sounded like a memory playing but he had yet to find the door to it. He jogged down the hall, looking into every door but none of the memories he was seeing matched with what he was hearing. 

_“Well it was either this or training with Keith.”_ Lance remembered cringing at that thought. 

_ “Then why don’t you go bother him?” _

_ “Been there, done that. Now it’s your turn.” _

Finally, after opening about ten different doors, Lance found the memory that matched the audio. 

_ Pidge was sitting at her computer with Hunk hovering over her shoulder. Lance didn’t know what they were working on, but he really wanted to do something. He needed to keep himself busy.  _

_ “Dude, as much as I love ya, we gotta get this thing to work before the next Galra attack.”  _

_ Hunk could sugarcoat it all he wanted, but without his medicine Lance could feel just how much he was getting on his friends’ nerves. Same old, same old.  _

_He didn’t mean to, but he heard Pidge think,_ ‘I want him to go away. Go. Away!’

_ Ouch. That really hurt. Sometimes Pidge didn’t realize just how rude she came across. Lance didn’t hold it against her, but still, ouch. “Okay, fine ...” _

_ ‘_ Finally!’

‘Oh, good he took the hint.’

_ As he walked away, Lance tried covering his ears in attempt to stop himself from hearing their thoughts, even though he knew it was ultimately a vain attempt.  _

That was something he did not like thinking about. It was times like those that brought out Lance’s true insecurities. He feared that he had no real worth on the team and that they only kept him so that they could form Voltron. Then add to the fact that he could hear their thoughts, is just a recipe for negativity. 

“Pitiful, isn’t it?”

Startled, Lance quickly spun around to come face to face with ... himself! Only, it wasn’t him. This version of him was dressed in his civilian wear, but everything—the skin, the clothes, the hair—was a shade darker than Lance actually was. Its eyes had red pupils and the sclera surrounding them were black. To add to the creepiness, it had trials of blood dripping from those eyes. It was Demon Lance! It leaned against the opposite wall with its arms folded as it smirked evilly at him. 

“Who are you?” He asked. 

The demonic version of himself dropped its jaw and clutched its chest in an act of hurt. “After all the time we spend together, you don’t know who I am? Lance, I’m hurt!”

It took a second, but then it clicked. “Oh, I get it; you’re the obstacle I’m supposed to defeat.”

The evil clone bent back in loud, hysterical laughter—which Lance found a little insulting and ironic at the same time. 

Dark Lance wiped a bloody tear from its eye. “Believe it or not, Hero, that’s not me.”

His stomach dropped. If this demon wasn’t the obstacle, what was?

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” It replied with a smirk. 

Lance stared at his evil clone. Oh, right ... this was his mind. It would make sense that everything in his personal hell would be able to hear his thoughts. “What are you?” Lance asked, trying to hide his unease. The creepiest part of this whole exchange was knowing that this demon would feel his discomfort no matter how much Lance tried to hide it. 

Dark Lance’s evil smirk grew. “Why, I’d say that I’m your best friend.” Lance scoffed, but it was the demon that responded. “Why is that so hard to believe?” It slithered—yes, actually turned into shadows and freaking _slithered_ —over to Lance’s side. “After all, we spend the most time together.” It creepily ran its fingers through his hair. Okay, this was a level of weird that no one should ever have to suffer!

Real Lance yanked himself away from the shadow version, trying to shake off the chills running down his spine. “I don’t have time for this.” 

The Red Paladin walked past his dark reflection, only for it to reply, “Story of your life, isn’t it?”

That made him stop in his tracks.

“No one has time for you, no one wants you around.” Lance tried not to listen, but it was pulling at his most vulnerable strings. “Some Paladin you are. As you can see,” Dark Lance gestured to the memory real Lance had just watched, which had frozen on a shot of himself walking away from his friends with his hands over his ears as they laughed at his retreating figure, “even your friends don’t want you around.”

He turned finally turned to face it. “That’s not true!” The response was automatic. 

“Isn’t it?” Dark Lance replies, tilting its head. “You heard it yourself,” The dark reflection crept up behind Lance, basically whispering in his ear, “and the best part is, that wasn’t the only time you heard them wish you were gone.” It laughed evilly at his expense. Lance bit his lip. Maybe if he didn’t respond then the demon would go away. 

Unfortunately, ignoring it only made Dark Lance move in front of him. “Look at you, refusing to fight. You know, that’s why Keith has always been better than you;” it folded its arms with a smirk while pacing in front of Lance, “he’s a fighter and you’re not,”

At that, the Red Paladin looked at his doppelgänger with a glare. _“Shut up.”_ He sneered. 

It shrugged its shoulders casually and continued its pacing, “it’s also why Allura prefers Lotor over you.”

In a flash, Lance had his hands around the demon’s throat. It laughed as he attempted to strangle the life out of it. “ _HAHAHA!_ Hit a nerve, did I? That’s right, Hero! Give in to that anger! It only makes **_ME_** stronger!”

The psychic Paladin gasped in realization. This demonic version of him was the manifestation of negative emotions—both his own and those that he had absorbed over the years—that he had kept locked away deep within himself. Dark Lance continued to grin at him. It pointed a finger at him in Lance’s signature “finger gun” salute. “Bingo, baby!”

* * *

Meanwhile in the real world, Hunk pressed himself closer to the two-way glass. “Something’s wrong with him ...”

“How can you tell?” Pidge asked. “He hasn’t moved in awhile.”

Without looking at her, Hunk pointed to Lance’s figure. “He’s squinting and he’s starting to sweat.”

The others all looked at the boy on the other side of the glass. Hunk was right. Lance’s breathing seemed to pick up and his eyes were clenched. He was also moving his head from side to side in slow shakes. It looked like he was having a nightmare, except he was still levitating in midair in a sitting position. 

Allura gasped. “Should we intervene?” 

“No, I’m afraid that would do more harm than good.”

_**“WAAA!”**_   The team all screamed in unison as they turned behind them to see Gruzko calmly standing there. 

“Somebody tell him to _please stop doing that_!” Hunk whined with a hand over his heart.

“Apologies. I did not want to be a disturbance.” 

“Gruzko, What did you mean when you said intervening would do more harm than good?” Lotor asked, speaking for everyone at the moment. 

Gruzko’s form slumped a bit. “I’m afraid Lance has encountered something within himself. At this point, waking him out of his trance would only result in a psychotic episode.”

Hunk moved from his spot at the mirror to towering right over the elderly Cyprocian. “What do you mean he encountered something? Was it whatever was blocking his Third Eye thing?” Anyone listening could hear the worry making its way into Hunk’s tone. 

Gruzko sighed heavily, now feeling quite guilty that the had let Lance take this impromptu journey alone. “I’m afraid not. This is something else. Something that was powerful enough to hide itself even from me.”

“What is it, is he in danger?” Shiro demanded. 

“That depends on your point of view.”

Pidge stomped her foot like a child. “Stop being so cryptic! What’s wrong with Lance?!”

Gruzko was as calm as ever, his empathetic abilities letting him know that the Paladins were just worried about their friend. “It is something that I had not anticipated until he came into contact with it, and is quite difficult to explain.”

“Yeah, well try it.” Pidge insisted, folding her arms. 

Gruzko nodded. “Very well.” He cleared his throat to begin his explanation. “Over the years, Lance’s abilities had been dulled through the medication he was given, but they were not as suppressed as he believed.” The Paladins all visibly tensed at this. “Lance has continuously absorbed energy, and over time, when negative energy is not released, it forms its own consciousness.”

Hunk gulped and moved his hand in a circular motion. “M-meaning ...?”

“Lance has unconsciously created a poltergeist within himself.”

Pidge shook her head, trying to understand what she had just been told. “Wait a minute, are you saying he made a ghost?”

Gruzko shook his head. “No, that is a common misconception. A poltergeist is not a ghost, but a creation by someone with our abilities. It is essentially a collection of negative thoughts, emotions and energy that forms a consciousness of its own over a long period of time. In this case, Lance has denied himself the release of this negativity and it has ultimately resulted in this poltergeist.”

The team was stunned at what they were just told. Basically, Lance had literally created his own worst enemy. 

“Well, if that’s the case, shouldn’t you be in there helping him out?!?!” Hunk panicked. 

“And rob him the chance to overcome it? I think not.”

“Overcome? You do realize this is Lance we’re talking about, right?” Shiro asked with a raised brow. 

Gruzko frowned. “Do not underestimate him. I have faith in him.”

* * *

Lance tightened his grip on Dark Lance’s throat. “What do you want from me?” There was panic in his eyes, covered by a mask of anger. 

The demon winked one glowing eye at him and then vanished into shadows. What the quiznak?! Lance looked around, but couldn’t find it. 

“Nothing much,” He totally didn’t let out another girly shriek, what are you taking about? But if he had, this one would have been justified. His scary look-alike reappeared right behind him, “I’m just here to watch as you break down in front of the _REAL_ obstacle.”

Snap out of it, Lance! It’s just baiting you. He told himself. Shaking his head to bring himself back, he straightened his posture and leered at his doppelgänger. He wouldn’t make the same mistake of letting it get to him again. “Well, you’ll be waiting a long time, Evil Me; because that’s not gonna happen.”

Dark Lance scoffed with a shrug, his hands casually in his pockets. “Who are you kidding? When’s the last time you conquered anything!” It was more of a demeaning statement than a sincere question. 

“I—“

“Your only purpose is to be a place-holder.” Dark Lance opened another door. Another memory played, but it was silent. It was a memory of the whole team, back when Keith was still part of it, discussing a plan in the bridge of the Castle, “they know it,” it then gestured to itself, “I know it,” and finally to Lance, “and you know it.”

“N-no, I—“

“—You’re useless! You’re stupid, you’re desperate, and annoying!”

Lance was speechless he couldn’t disagree, because that’s exactly what he thought; but he couldn’t agree either, because then that would just be confirming his own fears—and seriously, who does that to themselves?

So he just ran. The Red Paladin ran down the ever-growing hallway, doors flying open as he passed, while the demon’s evil laughter followed him in his wake. Honestly, he had no idea his own voice could sound so evil. It unnerved him to no end. As he ran, he caught glimpses of memories from his whole life. The further he ran, the more painful the memories became. 

Finally, he had had enough. Lance turned around and, with a desperate cry, focused all of his power to force every door in that long, creepy hall to slam shut. His eyes didn’t bleed, but it sure took a lot out of him. Hopefully that was that. 

Everything was quiet now. Lance smirked. Her turned around and shrieked at what he saw. Demon Lance stood directly behind him. “W-What did-how did-what?!”

“You can’t run from yourself, Lance. I’m a part of you!” Dark Lance shoved him, causing Lance to fall. 

When he reoriented himself, Lance realized that he was no longer in the Hall of doors, but instead in the Maze of Mirrors that he had seen earlier. How the quiznack did that happen?!

It was disorienting to see his quivering reflection everywhere. He could tell it was his own reflection and not that of Dark Lance due to his Paladin armor. 

Suddenly, there was that evil disembodied laugh again, coming from all around him. _“Leave me alone!”_ He desperately yelled. As he ran through the maze, dark shadow-like creatures appeared in the mirrors, nearly devouring his reflection. He instinctively knew that these shadow things were made up of negative energy that he had absorbed over the years, much like his dark counterpart. 

The negative creatures tried to grab him from inside the glass, which looked to be barely keeping them in. They reminded Lance of hungry, ravenous beasts, and it scared him to be so close to them. 

Lance kept running, not watching where he was going. Suddenly, he ran into something solid, which pretty much knocked the wind out of him. The young psychic stumbled a bit, but was able to catch himself before looking forward, only to see Dark Lance standing over him, red pupils practically glowing in the darkness surrounding them.He grinned evilly at him. “Did you really think you could get away? Honestly,” the demon stood with his hands on his hips in a mocking way, “that’s dumb even for you.”

Not giving Lance any time to think of a snappy come-back, Dark Lance used Lance’s own powers against him. He threw his arm out in front of him and the Red Paladin went flying into the nearest mirror. What he didn’t realize was that the mirror had cracked upon impact. 

Before he could recover, the shadow creatures in the mirror snarled and suddenly there were tendrils of negative energy around his wrists, neck and torso. “What the—?”

“Don’t fight it, Lance. It’s just going to make it more painful.”

“What are you—“ He tugged against the tendrils. 

The dark reflection knelt down to be face-to-face with Lance. “Making you into into ME!” He cackled evilly.

Lance looked over his shoulder to see that he was slowly being absorbed into the mirror. The shadow creatures were eager to devourer him. 

“With you out of the way, I can take over,” He shrugged mockingly, “who knows, maybe I’ll even jump the ranks again and become the new leader of Voltron. Then I can use it the way I see fit.”

“That’s not gonna happen!” Lance struggled even harder, but quickly realized that that was only quickening his decent into the mirror. No, he couldn’t let this demon take over his body—especially at the cost of Voltron. Who knows what it would do in his place? 

Lance’s face was yanked upwards by the chin, forced to look Dark Lance in his glowing red eyes. “Oh, don’t be like that, Hero. With me, at least you’ll finally be an asset to the team.” Lance’s own blue eyes widened. “Unlike you, I won’t run away from my powers. I’ll take things seriously. I’ll even be worthy of the title “the Right Hand of Voltron.” 

At those words, Lance found that he couldn’t argue anymore. Maybe this doppelgänger was right. As it stood, Lance wasn’t an asset to the team. He couldn’t even come to grips with who he was. And as much as he tried, he knew that he was not living up to his responsibilities as the Red Paladin, who was supposed to be the second in command. Because of this, he also knew that Shiro didn’t trust him the same way he did Keith, and he was nothing but an annoyance to Pidge and Allura. Maybe Dark Lance would be a better Paladin than him. Tears fell from his eyes. 

As he pondered these thoughts, Lance continued to sink into the mirror. At this point the negative energy was pretty much encompassing him now. He felt cold and empty. Just as Lance was about to give himself into his fate, something was brought to the surface of his mind. 

_“Don’t let yourself wander down that path, my student, I’m afraid not many come back from it.”_ Gruzko’s words from earlier echoed in his ears. 

_“Your passion for helping people is what makes your will strong,”_ Oh yeah, he forgot that his mentor had said that too. 

_“Well, this is the inside of your mind, after all.”_ Of course! How could he have forgotten that?!

_ “I have faith in you, my student!” _

_“Dude, that was awesome! I’m so proud of you, man!”_ A smile came to his lips. Hunk’s excitement filled him as he thought of his best friend’s words. 

_“Good work today.”_ Shiro’s praise boosted his confidence now just as much as it did when he had said it. 

_“You have greatness within.”_ How could he have forgotten about his talk with Allura, which was a turning point in his self-acceptance. At that moment, Lance decided that enough was enough. He wasn’t going to let his team—his space family—down. 

“This is my head, and I’m telling you to **GO AWAY!!!!** ” Lance’s voice echoed. A wave of energy emanated from Lance’s forehead and pushed Dark Lance away from him. It also gave him the strength to pull himself out of the tangle of shadow tendrils. 

Lance stood up and swung his arm in front of him, the same way Dark Lance had done moments before. The psychic wave of energy sent the demon into another mirror. The tables seemed to be turned this time. 

“The only person taking my place will be me.” Wait, that didn’t make any sense. Whatever. He finally had an edge over the doppelgänger, so he just went with it. He walked over to the stunned demon and stood over it. “I’m not running anymore. Not from you, not from my powers, and I will be worthy of my position.”

Lance flicked his wrist and Dark Lance stood upright, hovering a bit in midair. 

“No! You’re making a mistake, Lance!”

The Red Paladin (yes, the one _and_ only) tilted his head to the side and tapped his chin like he was thinking about something. “Hmmm ...” he then quickly stopped the tapping and shook his head, smirking, “yeah, I don’t think so.”

The demon was about to lash out at him again, when the shadow tendrils that held Lance prisoner before, wrapped themselves around its wrists, neck and waist. “Those things seem hungry. Maybe you should feed them.” Lance used his telekinesis to push his doppelgänger through the mirror, sending it away with a scream of agony. 

Whoo, that took a lot out of him. It gave him a bit of a headache, but it was worth it. With the demon gone, Lance’s surroundings became more tolerable. It didn’t really liven up, but the Maze of Mirrors faded, leaving only one mirror behind. After Lance wiped the sweat from his brow—hehe, funny how he was sweating in his mind—he looked at the mirror before him, seeing Dark Lance bang on the glass. 

The demon glared at him with such angry eyes that it made Lance flinch a little bit. “This won’t hold me forever, Hero! I’ll find a way out of here one way or another, and you’ll **pay** for this!”

Lance waved him off. “Yeah, Yeah, take a number and get in line.”

It growled demonically as Lance closed his eyes and basically thought his way back to the end of the hall of doors. When he opened them again, there he was. He was in front of a special, set of Art Deco double doors. They were bigger and more elaborate than any of the others, which all looked alike from one another. Oh yeah, this had to be the door that lead him to his Third Eye. This was like a stereotypical door to the next level of a video game; like Lance had just fought the boss and won. Well, that’s what it felt like, anyway. 

Just as he was about to grab onto the large door handles, another voice stopped him in his tracks. 

“You don’t want do that, Mijó.”

Lance gasped, his heart sinking to his stomach. 

* * *

“What’s wrong with him now? Why is he whispering to himself?” Pidge asked. 

“There is good news and bad news. Which would you like first?” Gruzko chirped. 

Hunk was seriously gettin tired of just sitting around helplessly and waiting. “At this point, just surprise us.”

“Very well. The good news is that Lance has expelled the poltergeist.”

Hunk took a breath, leaning on Shiro for support. “Oh, that is good news.”

“The bad news is that he has now come in contact with the obstacle.” There was a thick, tense quiet as the Paladins stared at the small alien. 

“Is that a good thing or bad?” Allura asked. 

Gruzko shrugged. “We will have to wait and see.”

Pidge huffed in an annoyed matter and returned to watching Lance whisper to himself. “Hunk, you understand Spanish, right?” She asked without turning to look at him. 

The Yellow Paladin blinked twice before responding. “Uh, a little bit. He taught me a few words our first year at the Garrison.”

“Can you tell what he’s saying here?”

Hunk came up to the mirror. The glass may have been two-way, but it was thin, so Lance’s muttering was just barely audible. 

“What is Spanish?” Allura asked, turning to Shiro. 

“It’s another language on Earth. It’s Lance’s native language.”

Allura raised a white eyebrow. “Another language? What is the use of that?”

Lotor placed his hand on her shoulder. “I must concur with Allura. Having more than one dialect seems preposterous.”

“Than don’t go to Earth. There are over 6,500 languages.” Pidge replied without looking away from the glass. Both aliens looked at her with widened eyes

“Surely you must be joking.”

Pidge scoffed. “Sorry, Princey; but it’s the truth.” She turned back to the mirror, before turning right back to Lotor. “And my name’s not Shirley!”

“Ghost ...”

“What?”

All eyes turned to Hunk, who had a confused look on his face. “He’s saying something about a ghost.”

The team all turned to look at Lance, who’s eyes were still clenched and he was muttering, “un fantasma ...” over and over again. 

“I thought Lance said he couldn’t see ghosts.” Pidge said, scratching her head. 

Shiro turned to Gruzko. “Could he be talking about the poltergeist?”

Gruzko shook his head. “No, the poltergeist was separate from this obstacle.”

“Hold on a sec!” Hunk whipped around forcefully to face Gruzko’s form. “Do you know what Lance is fighting right now?!”

The small alien nodded. “Yes.”

“You’re his mentor! Aren’t you supposed to be helping him?!” Shiro practically had to hold Hunk back from clobbering Gruzko into the ground. 

“This is a challenge that Lance needs to face by himself. Besides, I think you’re going to need my attention more in a matter of minutes.”

“What do you mean?” Allura asked. 

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and the entire temple shook from the impact. “What was that?!?!” Pidge yelled, caught completely by surprise.

“You were followed on your way here.” Gruzko calmly stated as if nothing was going on. More explosions were happening. 

“Impossible! No Galra aside from myself knows of this planet!”

“When you passed through another system, a Galra commander spotted the Castle of Lions and decided to follow you.”

“You knew there was an army of Galra here and you didn’t tell us sooner?!” Allura asked with a panic. 

“I know many things. If I intervened every time something happened, I would create a multitude of paradoxes. I prefer not to do that.”

The explosions kept coming, and there were panicking “Okay, we can argue about this later, right now, we have to protect the Cyprocians!” Shiro announced, the ever faithful leader that he was. 

Pidge shrugged. “Okay, so what do we do?”

“We need to wake Lance! Without him we can’t form Voltron.”

All four Paladins moved to make their way into the room their meditating teammate was in; however, they were suddenly stopped by an invisible force. 

“Hey, what’s going on—I can’t move!” Hunk complained. 

“Me neither!” Both Pidge and Allura replied at the same time. 

The invisible force that held them still slowly moved them to face Gruzko. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you wake him.”

“Don’t you want us to save your people?!” Pidge yelled. 

“Of course I do, but Lance is fighting his own battle at them moment.”

Allura groaned, trying to regain control of her limbs. “Gruzko, you heard what Shiro said, without Lance we can’t form Voltron!” 

“Than you need to find some other way to combat them. But Lance needs to stay as he is.” Shiro was about to protest when Gruzko spoke again. “I can have some of our teleporters take you back to your lions, but you must leave Lance be.”

The invisible force gently placed the four Paladins down in the floor.Aside from the squinting of his eyes and his mumbling, Lance had not budged from his position. Even though there was chaos all around him, he did not stir. Shiro had had to make some tough decisions in his time as the leader of Voltron, but having to decide to leave one of his teammates vulnerable like this, was perhaps the worst. “Okay, deal. Take us to our lions and we’ll try to do what we can without Lance.” Gruzko nodded, accepting the terms. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If these translations aren't grammatically correct, don't blame me, a non-Spanish-speaker who only took two semesters of Spanish way back when in high school, blame Google translate.
> 
>  
> 
> * Don't tell anyone about your curse.
> 
> ** I'm sorry, I couldn't keep my promise, Mom ...


End file.
